Is animal milk healthy?

Milk consumption is bad for the environment.

Question: Is animal milk healthy?
Position‹4 of 4: It doesn't matter, we shouldn't drink milk regardless.
Argument1 of 3›: Milk consumption is bad for the environment.

Production of milk and dairy products harms the environment.

The argument

Dairy farming has a large environmental impact, contributing to environmental issues and climate change. Dairy cows require land to graze, house, and produce food for them, and this land use is a huge portion of worldwide land use. Land that could alternatively be healthy ecosystems supporting the environment is transformed into grazing fields for cows, and their toll on land use is large. In addition, the land that cows use is grazed and trampled over, making it almost impossible for a healthy ecosystem to thrive there ever again. Land used by cows also contributes to environmental problems such as acidification and eutrophication (leading to low oxygen) of waters surrounding dairy farms. Farming of cows requires enormous amounts of water, so dairy farms are a huge contributor to water use. Water is used primarily for hydrating cows, because milk is primarily water so cows require lots of water to produce it. Water is used in large amounts for cleaning dairy facilities. In addition, producing milk constantly drains cows’ metabolisms, making them require lots of food. Growth of feed (commonly grass, grain, and alfalfa) for dairy cows uses huge amounts of water because cows eat water-intensive crops. Water usage negatively harms the environment by taking freshwater out of freshwater ecosystems where plants and animals thrive, and contributing to water scarcity and drought in regions where water is not abundant. Dairy farming also contributes to climate change through greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming and extreme weather events. Cows produce large amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, powerful greenhouse gases which harm the environment.

Premises

[P1]Dairy farming consumes huge amounts of land, turning potential ecosystems into grazing fields that are trampled beyond recovery. [P2] It requires enormous quantities of water to hydrate cows, clean facilities, and grow water-intensive feed, draining freshwater ecosystems. [P3] Cows also emit large amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, powerful greenhouse gases that drive climate change. [C] Therefore, because milk consumption is bad for the environment, we shouldn't drink milk regardless of its health effects.

Counter-arguments

-Dairy farming’s impact on the environment is overblown. -Other industries have much larger environmental impacts than dairy does. -Milk’s essential nutrients to humans makes it worth the environmental impact.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Much grazing land is unsuited to crops, so the alternative the premise assumes — thriving ecosystem or arable use — does not hold everywhere, and "trampled beyond recovery" overstates a process that managed pasture and rotation avoid. [Rejecting P2] Water totals depend on what is counted: the largest figures include rainfall falling on pasture, which is not withdrawn from any freshwater ecosystem, so the drainage the premise describes does not follow from the volumes cited. [Rejecting P3] Even granting each impact, the conclusion does not follow. The position is that we should not drink milk regardless, which requires weighing dairy against the environmental cost of whatever replaces it — a comparison the premises never make.