True Left

Global production of cheese is skyrocketing and for many, it's the first alternative when we quit meat. But dairy products and cheese especially can have similar impacts on the environment as meat. In some scenarios, they're even more harmful to the planet.

Until its modern spread along with European culture, cheese was nearly unheard of in east Asian cultures and in the pre-Columbian Americas and had only limited use in sub-Mediterranean Africa, mainly being widespread and popular only in Europe, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and areas influenced by those cultures. But with the spread, first of European imperialism, and later of Euro-American culture and food, cheese has gradually become known and increasingly popular worldwide.