Greek yogurt, a major food trend, has become a breakfast must-have because of both its wonderful flavor and many health benefits, but at what cost are we enjoying our daily creamy, dreamy Greek yogurt bowls? Well, keep eating Greek yogurt and you may have to move to Mars. Greek yogurt pollution (yes, yogurt pollution) is a very real thing, but there are simple things you can do to help.
How could Greek yogurt pollution be a thing?
The production of Greek yogurt generates a ton of byproduct called acid whey, sucking up the oxygen animals need to live in their habitats, so companies can’t just dump it
So far, manufacturers have paid farmers to store the whey, but when you’re producing 3x the whey for every ounce of yogurt, there’s really no container big enough to hold all of that (except for maybe the ocean, but that’s definitely off limits).
So, what can we do with acid whey?
As for other solutions, acid whey can feed cattle and fertilize plants, but because of this food trend’s high demand, there’s too much of it. The amount of byproduct is increasing daily, so the time left to find solutions is getting smaller and smaller..
Buuuuutttttt, there are things you can do to help the exhausted food scientists out — you play a role in the problem solving. You’re the solution.
OK, OK, so the possibility is real. Tell me what I can do
First off, there are a lot of recipes to make your own Greek yogurt. It turns out the simple difference between Greek yogurt and regular yogurt is that Greek yogurt is just strained, and straining your yogurt is pretty easy — It just takes a little bit of time. Or, if you’re feeling a bit more authentic, you can try making this recipe from yia-yia herself.
Your other option is to choose not to eat Greek yogurt, but if you can’t follow through with that yet, you can sign this virtual petition to try to get the FDA’s attention about this problem.
Obviously greek yogurt is such a popular trend today that it can be hard to avoid, but the consequences of contributing to this production problem are too scary to ignore.
So far, the byproduct hasn’t threatened the oceans yet, but the lack of available solutions are just as alarming. To those who can’t give it up because they crave the health benefits, it’s time to start thinking of the planet’s health, too. Because, if we don’t, Finding Nemo’s about to get a whole lot sadder.