Matthew Evans cuts a striking figure walking into a busy Melbourne cafe on a Wednesday morning – he’s tall and wiry with a shock of wild grey hair that’s far longer than his author photo. After reading his 15th book, Milk: The truth, the lies and the unbelievable story of the original superfood, I’m not surprised he orders a flat white with full-fat dairy milk. He’s tried various plant milks and thinks oat is “the least offensive, but it doesn’t make the coffee better, so I don’t really see the point”.
Evans was never a big milk drinker growing up, but his attitude changed as he became a chef, food critic, farmer and cookbook author. “From a gastronomic point of view, I love the flavour and what it becomes,” he says. “It’s really magic that it can become solid, and become ricotta, or yoghurt, or butter.”
As a farmer he’s surrounded by grass, which comes from sunlight and water and air. “It’s a miracle that plants grow out of this!” he says effusively. “Then a cow eats the grass and makes milk! Like, what the fuck is that? It’s kind of mind-blowing, isn’t it?”
It is. And it’s hard not to be taken by Evans’s fast-talking enthusiasm as he shoots off on passionate tangents: from breast milk to lab-grown milks. On the one hand, milk is the simplest of foods; on the other, it’s an extraordinarily complex social, political, ethical, environmental, scientific and fashionable elixir.
Evans reels off the stats: six billion people on the planet drink animal milk; we’ve been drinking it for more than 8500 years; and 98 per cent of Australian households have it in the fridge. But is it bad for us, and worse for the environment? Not really, says Evans. “Milk used to be revered and considered important, like we named the galaxies after it … but then suddenly it’s demonised,” he says. “I started this book as a guy who eats dairy and understands the ethics around it [one of Evans’s previous books is On Eating Meat: The truth about its production and the ethics of eating it], but what I didn’t expect was to become almost evangelical about dairy.”
Milk affects us from the moment we’re born to our last breath, he explains. “This isn’t just some watery almonds, this is some serious shit,” he says, nodding.
Evans thought he would have more to write about the proliferation of dairy replacements seen in supermarkets and cafes around the country: almonds, oat, soy, rice and, coming soon, potato milk. “But there was nothing to write about,” he says dismissively. “Some people have framed the book as if I want people to drink more [cow’s] milk. I don’t give a shit what people drink. I really don’t care. But three-quarters of the world’s population rely on dairy as a substantial part of their nutrition. You get rid of that, what are the repercussions? The repercussions we know in the UK are tripling of hospitalisations for vitamin deficiency in 10 years.”
While many have an intolerance to lactose, Evans points to science suggesting humans can safely drink a cup of milk a day, and still absorb the fats and proteins within. “Oat milk provides nothing nutritionally, so it doesn’t matter [if it’s more environmentally friendly] because it’s not feeding anyone,” he says. “It’s just making your coffee whiter. Having hemp milk on your cereal and vegan cheese in your toastie is not replacing what your body needs.”
The book engagingly blends science, history and memoir. One chapter, The New Moonshine, examines how people come to Evans searching for raw unpasteurised cow’s milk with the intensity of junkies. He writes:
“You got any?” The question came breathlessly. A little shyly.
The surreptitious nature of the query reminded me of the 'Jason?' I used to hear whispered behind me on Smith Street in Collingwood a few decades ago. Jason? I wondered what the man behind me in a tracksuit was trying to say. Turns out he was asking if I was 'Chasing?' But I was too naive to know a drug dealer when one followed me.
Evans – and Milk – is full of surprises. “Everyone’s got a fucking opinion about milk, but it’s always loaded with biases and baggage,” he says, finishing his coffee. “I wanted to pull back and say, ‘at least we can all agree milk is fucking amazing’.”
Milk by Matthew Evans, Murdoch Books, $34.99, is available now from murdochbooks.com.
