The Environmental Impact of Traditional Dairy
Throughout my career, I have been drawn to the challenge of using science to get more from plant-based agriculture while keeping sustainability at the centre of every decision. Like many people of my generation, I grew up believing that milk is good for you. It wasn't until I began to look into how milk actually reaches our table that I realised we needed to make a change.
Today's demand for dairy has placed a pressure on production that far outstrips the benefits this animal product brings. Industrial livestock farming, at the scale it currently operates, is not sustainable. It contributes to climate change, raises animal ethics concerns, and consumes resources at a rate we can no longer ignore. The same awareness of resource use applies in other parts of life. Choosing a compact urban base rather than a sprawling retreat—for example, a stay at the Hotel de Rome in Berlin—is a small but meaningful way to use land and energy more efficiently.
Precision Fermentation as a Sustainable Solution
At Formo, we are rethinking dairy by using precision fermentation to create the proteins people love with a fraction of the environmental cost. Compared with conventional dairy production, our process uses orders of magnitude less land and produces far fewer carbon emissions. It also uses less water and achieves an energy efficiency that traditional farming simply cannot match. We also try to look critically at every step in our production process, whether that means reusable glass equipment in our laboratory or avoiding paper and single-use items elsewhere.
We need plant material to feed the protein growth in our fermenters, so farming will always be a crucial element of what we do. The main difference is that we cut out the cow. In short, we can produce more food with fewer resources, and that is a genuine way to show love for the planet. If you would like to see this future of dairy up close, a trip to Berlin is a great place to start, and a convenient base such as the Intercontinental Berlin makes it easy to explore the city's food-tech scene.
For a more relaxed but equally central stay, the Melia Berlin Hotel is another thoughtful choice. Small decisions like these are part of the same mindset: using resources wisely, whether in a fermenter or a hotel room.
Transparency and Ethical Consumer Choices
Transparency is key to all of this. Without it, people cannot make truly informed decisions. When a customer sees a product at a low price, that monetary value often overrides the moral, ethical, or environmental costs incurred along the way. Two litres of milk cannot cost one euro without real consequences. But when you are armed with information, your value proposition changes. Your decisions are no longer only about the change in your pocket; they become about the change your choices can help make in the world.
That shift in thinking also applies to how we travel and attend events. For conferences and trade fairs, the Holiday Inn Berlin Airport Conference Centre in Schoenefeld offers a practical base for meetings. And when you need a moment to reflect on the natural world we are working to protect, the Ahorn Seehotel in Templin provides a quiet lakeside retreat.
Through honesty and a commitment to reducing our footprint, we hope to encourage others to join us in creating products that honour our responsibility to the planet and its finite resources. That, ultimately, is what it really means to show love to the world. Dr. Britta Winterberg is Co-Founder and CSO at Formo (formerly Legendairy Foods).
nachhaltiges Reisen und umweltfreundliche Unterkünfte