Oat milk has quickly become the nation’s milk-alternative drink of choice, with one in three Brits knocking back the creamy milk on a regular basis. And being dairy-free, those who drink it probably think they’re doing something good for the planet by not consuming animal products. But do they know how far that oat milk they love so much has travelled to get to them?
Based in Cambridge, family run oat milk producer Glebe Farm is proud to be the most sustainable oat milk in the UK. Having already announced best-in-class carbon emission figures in 2021 for their UK produced Oat milk, Glebe Farm continues to champion sustainable farming and rock-bottom food miles – over 85% of oat milk is imported into the UK by market leaders.
Glebe Farm is home to Britain’s first ever production plant for making oat milk from scratch. All their oats are sourced locally – within 40 miles – and then milled and ‘milked’ on the farm, so they know exactly where their oats have come from and what goes into each carton.
They power production sustainably too, using solar panels and recycled biomass from the farm to provide renewable energy to power the plant. This helps keep their carbon footprint as low as possible. And at only 0.29kg CO2 per litre it is lower than any other oat milk reporting figures in the UK.
Glebe Farm’s solar panels generate enough energy to power 60 homes, and the biomass generators save 1000 tonnes of CO2 per year – enough to power 250 homes. Using biomass steam, their entire oat milling process can be completed without using any fossil fuel steam.
Sustainability and the environment are at the heart of our family business, which doesn’t stop at the oat milk. Their control over the oat supply means they can make use of by-products such as the inedible oat chaff for powering production facilities, meaning less waste and greater efficiency.
On the rest of the 1,200 acre farm, Glebe Farm provides a safe habitat for British wildlife, with bee bricks and hives, wildflower meadows, owl boxes, reforested woodland, and an external reed bed and reservoir to save and clean water – to name a few. What’s more, Glebe Farm supports both community and international donation projects, donating to local food banks and animal sanctuaries as well as the Ukraine food for refugees appeal.
