PORTLAND, Ore., USA – A whole latte love is heading to locally based Stumptown Coffee Roasters, winner of PETA’s Compassionate Coffee Chain Award. The group is honoring Stumptown for its decision to make oat milk the default option in all of its milk-based drinks—a move that helps prevent day-old calves from being torn away from their mothers in the dairy industry, a top producer of greenhouse gases.
Stumptown, which belongs to a growing list of businesses that—unlike Starbucks—don’t charge extra for vegan milks, will receive a framed certificate and a box of cow-shaped vegan chocolates.
“PETA credits Stumptown with promoting a compassionate brew by leaving mother cows and their calves in peace and helping to slash greenhouse gas emissions fueled by the environmentally disastrous dairy industry,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges coffee drinkers to buy only from ethical roasters that encourage kindness and don’t upcharge for plant milk options.”
More people than ever are choosing plant milks, and the consumption of dairy milk has declined by 40% over the past 50 years. Stumptown said it switched to oat milk as the default option because of its creamy deliciousness, increasing customer demand, and its lower impact on the climate.
Stumptown, Panera Bread, Pret A Manger, Noah’s New York Bagels, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Philz Coffee offer dairy-free milk at no extra charge, but Starbucks charges more, despite agreeing that vegan milks are better for the planet than dairy milk. PETA, along with more than 140,000 supporters, is calling on Starbucks to end its price hike on vegan milks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
