This Popular Café Just Ditched the Vegan Milk Upcharge Thanks to PETA
It’s a win for cows, the climate, and coffee lovers! After hearing from PETA that charging extra for vegan milk unfairly penalizes kind consumers who want to slash greenhouse gas emissions and spare mother cows and their calves, café chain Busboys and Poets swiftly dropped the upcharge.
Busboys and Poets’ owner Andy Shallal wrote, “People using non-dairy milk substitutes shouldn’t have to subsidize factory animal production.”
Busboys and Poets Joins Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, and Dunkin’
All eight Busboys and Poets locations in the Washington, D.C., area now offer vegan milk at no extra charge. An oat milk latte pairs perfectly with many of the café’s delicious vegan meals!
This compassionate decision puts Busboys and Poets among the growing list of coffee sellers—including Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, Dunkin’, Dutch Bros, Blue Bottle Coffee, Panera, Philz Coffee, Pret A Manger, Stumptown, and Tim Hortons—that offer dairy-free milk at no extra charge.
Why It Matters
Cows are excellent mothers and only produce milk to feed their babies. In the dairy industry, workers repeatedly forcibly impregnate cows, take away their calves (often within hours), and steal their milk for human consumption. After enduring this cycle of trauma over and over again, slaughterhouse workers kill them when their bodies stop producing enough milk to be profitable.
Beyond the cruelty to animals, the dairy industry is a leading producer of the greenhouse gases fueling the climate catastrophe. Offering vegan milk at no extra cost makes it easier for people to make choices that are better for our fellow animals and the Earth we share.
Keep the Momentum Going!
Let’s keep the pressure on! It’s due time for The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to follow suit and end its vegan milk upcharge. Reward customers for making kind choices, don’t punish them.
