A strange item from the Financial Times blames slumping oat milk sales on… climate change. Which is taking “there’s nothing it cannot do” a bit far, surely. One might simply blame the fact that it’s not milk because it came from an oat. But the story goes “Oatly’s chief executive said greenwashing and ‘doom and gloom’ talk around climate change had put US consumers off sustainability, as sales of plant-based dairy alternatives go into reverse after years of growth. ‘In the past, when people were talking about climate change or sustainability, it was in a doom and gloom, in a punitive, in a very negative... way. And people got fed up with that,’ said Jean-Christophe Flatin, chief executive of the oat drink maker.” Well, how else can you scare people into giving up the stuff we’ve been drinking with pleasure and profit since the invention of agriculture, the one that also gives us butter and cheese? Also it turns out people did kind of want their milk from a cow and, one presumes, their porridge from oats if indeed they want porridge.

No, really. The story continues that plant-based “milk” sales fell in the U.S. by 5% last year while actual milk went up 1%, though the fake stuff is still 14%. Moreover:

“Like much of the plant-based food and drink industry, New York-listed Oatly has struggled to sustain its rapid growth as inflation squeezes disposable incomes. Its problems have been exacerbated by consumers prioritising food and drink that’s high in protein, such as cow’s milk, over products that boast a lower environmental impact. There has also been a broad shift away from ultra-processed products, such as oat milk.”

There’s more to the story, of course, including some issues internal to the company. But when it comes to climate, if the sales pitch is you must drink our product or the planet gets it, it’s hard to think of a perky way to deliver it.