Milk vs Plant Based Dairy Analogues: Myths and Facts

Milk and milk products have been an integral part of human diet since ancient times and currently recognized as a functional foods due to increasing scientific evidences attributing to their health promoting and disease alleviating virtues. ‘White revolution’ transformed the landscape of Indian agriculture, leading not only to self-sufficiency in milk production, but also improved socio-economic scenario across the nation. Dairying is considered as holistic and sustainable solution for livelihood, and nutritional security of India. Even in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2030, dairying is directly related with 11 out of 17 action points. Recent Covid-19 pandemic has revitalized the immunomodulatory properties of milk nutrients

Seaweed Farming and Utilisation

Seaweeds, a type of marine macroalgae, are highly valued for their numerous ecological, social, and economic benefits. They have diverse applications, including serving as raw materials for biochemicals like agar, alginate, agarose, and carrageenan, as well as forfood, enzymes, medicines, animal feed, fertilizer, cosmetics, textiles, and biotechnology. Seaweeds also contribute to climate change mitigation processes by serving as carbon sinks, effectively sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. Presently, 97% of the world’s production of seaweed, amounting to 34 million tonnes, comes from farming (FAO, 2022). In India, there are more than 700 seaweed species, with a wet harvestable biomass of approximately 0.26 million tonnes/year. About 52,000 tonnes (wet weight) of seaweeds that occur naturally along the Indian coast are collected every year from seaweed beds (species are Sargassum, Turbinaria, Gracilaria and Gelidiella) by nearly 5000 families in Tamil Nadu (CMFRI, 2023)