NEWS: American actor James Cromwell has made headlines after glueing himself to a countertop in a New York City Starbucks on Tuesday to protest the company’s extra charge for vegan milk alternatives.

Joined by another activist from PETA, of which Cromwell is an honorary director, and several more carrying signs and chanting, Cromwell read out a message about the action, explaining that the vegan surcharge supports the dairy industry which harms animals and the planet. He also pointed out that it unfairly penalizes people who are lactose intolerant, which includes many Indigenous Americans and Black and Asian people.

In the U.S., most Starbucks stores charge 70 cents for soy, oat, almond, coconut, or almond milk, and up to 80 cents in certain areas like New York City. Starbucks dropped the surcharge in its UK stores in January, so why the continued charge across the pond? “Pricing varies market by market,” was the explanation proffered by a Starbucks spokesperson.

So what is it about milk alternatives that makes them pricier than dairy? The alternatives cost more than dairy to produce (though it has become cheaper over time), but this is only part of the picture. Dairy milk is priced lower due to pressure on suppliers from retailers, the production of milk outpacing consumer demand, and government subsidies which keep prices from rising too high. So although retailers like Starbucks will pay less for dairy milk, the fact that many have already dropped the plant milk charge indicates they are able to do so without any financial pain.

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Critics argue that big coffee chains that add a charge for milk alternatives are making them less accessible to their customers who want to make more sustainable and animal-friendly choices. And as plant-based food advocacy group ProVeg has pointed out, dropping the plant milk surcharge aligns with Starbucks’ plan to halve its carbon emissions by 2030. 

While there is no price difference between dairy and plant milks in many coffee chains, very few have yet taken the next step of dethroning dairy as the default. Coffee company Blue Bottle, which has stores across the country as well as Japan and Korea, has trialled serving oat milk as its default in its California stores, while American boutique chain Onyx also made oat the default when it opened a new store in 2021.

But a lot has changed for plant-based alternatives in the past couple of years, and with the booming plant milk industry projected to keep growing, more people may have to start specifying that it’s milk from cows that they want when ordering coffee in the near future.

Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.

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