Still more efficient on resource utilization than animal agriculture. If you hate almond milk for that reason, you should want the dairy industry completely abolished.
Added to what the other guy said (that it's grazing land that HAS to fallow whether used or not), that 77% number ALSO counts the waste from crops we're growing for humans, waste that would be going to an incinerator if they weren't going to a cow or pig.
Very few (if any, depending how you define the breakdown) crops are grown with animals as their focus. It just so happens that's how much of those crops we cannot digest.
I don’t want it gone but I don’t want it subsidized. I’m not planning on being vegan but I’m cutting out a ton of animal protein from my life. I make it a special thing.
I feel like trying to compare a water intensive crop grown in a place known for drought to crops that can be grown in many places where water is far more readily available is being a bit disingenuous. You're not comparing apples to apples.
I mean, you could say that we shouldn't be wasting resources on animal agriculture anywhere, but especially in the same places that don't have enough water for crops.
Feeding food and giving water to other "food" will always be far less efficient than just providing a fraction of that water to plant-based foods. Animal agriculture is a waste.
My favorite oat milk is Oatly Barista, the best soy milk I've tried is from Joya, but I haven't seen it outside of Austria yet. Alpro is quite good and more widely available (at least in Europe). In North America, Silk seems to be great from what I've heard. Store brand soy milks tend to taste pretty bad from my experience here in Germany, but some of them might have improved since I tried them years ago.
Even soy milk in the US isn't really just soy milk. There are so much stuff added to it. It's thick too.
I grew up drinking a lot of real soy milk which has a watery consistency that I can get at some Vietnamese / Chinese grocery stores or tofu shops. Flavor is quite different too.
Though I guess the US put thickeners and other stuff into theirs to help imitate milk