Cell Based Milk
Environment

Traditional dairy farming: the pros and cons

To understand why anyone would grow milk from cells, it helps to understand what conventional dairy does well, and where it struggles.

Updated 4 min readBy the Cell Based Milk team
Illustration of a farm milk can standing in grass

Key takeaways

  • The US produced a record 232 billion pounds of milk in 2025 from about 9.5 million cows.
  • Dairy is an affordable source of protein, calcium and other nutrients, and an economic backbone for many rural communities.
  • Its costs include methane emissions, land and water use, manure pollution, and animal welfare concerns.
  • Cell-based milk aims to keep the benefits of dairy while removing many of these costs.

Before weighing the promise of cell-based milk, it’s worth understanding the system it hopes to complement or replace. Conventional dairy is a vast, efficient and deeply rooted industry, and it has real strengths alongside its well-known problems.

How modern dairy works

Dairy cows produce milk after giving birth, so a dairy herd runs on a cycle of breeding, calving and milking. A typical cow is milked two or three times a day for most of the year, then given a dry period before her next calf.

US dairy has become remarkably productive. In 2025, the country produced a record 232 billion pounds of milk from an average of 9.5 million cows, according to USDA data reported by Cheese Reporter. That works out to about 24,390 pounds per cow per year, or roughly 2,800 gallons.

Milk from the farm is cooled, collected by tanker, then pasteurized, standardized and packaged, or turned into cheese, butter, yogurt and powders.

The pros

Nutrition. Milk is an affordable source of high-quality protein, calcium, potassium, vitamin B12 and riboflavin. One cup of whole milk provides about 8 grams of protein and 276 mg of calcium. For many families, it’s one of the cheapest ways to meet those needs.

Versatility. Few foods can become as many other foods: cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, ice cream, whey protein and countless ingredients in baking and cooking. Much of that depends on milk’s unique proteins, especially casein.

Rural economies. Dairy farms support jobs in farming, processing, transport and veterinary care, often in regions with few other industries.

Productivity gains. Thanks to genetics, nutrition and management, each US cow produces far more milk than her counterparts did decades ago, which means fewer animals and lower emissions per gallon than in the past.

Culture and tradition. Dairy is woven into the cuisines and traditions of many cultures around the world.

Use of non-arable land. Grazing animals can turn grass on land unsuitable for crops into food.

The cons

Climate

Cattle account for about 62% of the livestock sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, and livestock overall produces roughly 12% of human-caused emissions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Most of dairy’s climate impact comes from methane released as cows digest feed, and from manure.

Land and water

Per liter, cow’s milk requires roughly ten times the land of common plant milks, and on average about 628 liters of fresh water, according to Our World in Data. Much of that land grows feed crops. See our environmental comparison for the full numbers.

Water pollution

Manure and fertilizer runoff can carry nitrogen and phosphorus into rivers and lakes, contributing to algae blooms and dead zones. Dairy milk has the highest eutrophication impact of the common milks Our World in Data compared.

Animal welfare

Welfare concerns are among the most debated aspects of dairy:

  • Calves are usually separated from their mothers shortly after birth.
  • Many cows live mostly or entirely indoors, depending on the farm.
  • Breeding for high yields is linked to health problems such as mastitis (udder infection) and lameness.
  • Cows are typically sent to slaughter when their milk production declines, often after only a few lactations.

Standards vary widely between farms and countries, and many farmers invest heavily in animal care. But these practices are built into the economics of large-scale dairy.

Antibiotics and disease

Dairy cows are treated with antibiotics when sick, especially for mastitis. Milk from treated cows must be withheld until residues clear, but routine antibiotic use in agriculture is a concern for antibiotic resistance. Herds are also vulnerable to disease outbreaks that can disrupt supply.

Where cell-based milk fits

Cell-based milk aims to keep dairy’s biggest strengths, its nutrition and its unique cooking properties, while removing the animal-related costs: methane, manure, land use, and welfare concerns.

It won’t replace dairy farming any time soon. But it could become a complementary source of real dairy, particularly for ingredients and cheese. Read more about who’s making it and when you might be able to buy it.

Sources

All articles