Alt Milk (clip)

The first camels in Australia arrived in the 19th century, brought from India and Afghanistan during the exploration of the most desertic regions of the continent. With the advent of new means of transport, camels went obsolete and were released into the wild. Currently, with the large number of feral camels that exist and continue to reproduce, hundreds of thousands are sacrificed each year by the officials in an effort to control their population and reduce the damage these animals cause to the environment as an alien species.

Some local entrepreneurs want to offer an alternative solution to their senseless sacrifice and their dairy farms are betting on the growing demand for camel milk and its by-products worldwide. Camel milk, although still very expensive compared to cow's milk, is a milk known and consumed for centuries in some countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, but it is still unknown in many western markets despite the multiple health benefits attributed to it.

If you're looking to do more
to keep your emissions down,

you should probably start
with what you pour in your coffee.

Yep, I'm talking about milk.

One researcher found that milk,
cheese, and ice cream from cows

is responsible for about 3.6%
of global emissions.

The almonds in your almond milk,

take about six times more water to grow

than the same amount of oats.

Which is one reason why oat milk
is now everywhere.

Well, those aren't
the only milk alternatives.

There's also one
that has an added benefit,

plus, it has humps.

ALT MILK

So now what we're going to do

is take a little bit of
milk out of each tit,

and we're going
to have a look at that milk.

(Arielle) Okay,
I'm going to give this a try.

I am getting quite--
Oh, there we go.

All right, I'm milking camel.

(Lauren) The next two, the next two
we got to milk, yeah.

(Arielle) This is a camel dairy farm

and it's in Australia.

When Lauren Brisbane started it
six years ago,

it was the only one in the country.

It's been difficult

because Australians
aren't naturally adventurous

particularly in new food types.

(Arielle) In the 1860s,

Afghan camel herders were hired

to help explore
the country's desert landscapes

bringing thousands of camels with them.

But with the advent of trains and cars,

camels soon became obsolete.

So they were released into the wild.

Fast forward to the early 2000s,

and Australia was home
to more than a million camels,

which was a problem
because those camels

cause 10 million dollars
in environmental damage each year,

according to the government.

So officials tried to stop them
by killing thousands of camels in 2010.

Lauren saw this as an opportunity
to turn camels into a cash cow.

There's worldwide need for camel's milk.

It doesn't cause a lot of the dysfunction
or the allergy reaction

that you get from, you know, dairy,
cow's dairy milk.

So it's easier to digest.

(Arielle) Research on camel's milk
is still very scarce.

There's only limited evidence
to suggest that camel's milk

might have unique nutritional properties

and overall, the jury still out.

At $25 a liter, it's also not cheap.

Look, I think it's expensive because
camels don't produce a lot of milk,

and the way you operate
a dairy is completely different.

But it's a very high-end healthy product,

and to produce that properly is expensive.

(Arielle) Camel's milk has been popular
in the Middle East and Africa

for thousands of year,.

and Australia is nowhere close
to cracking the list of top producers.

Laura thinks she can help
expand the product's reach

beyond just being a fad, though.

So, we had a chat
with her target audience.

Would you be willing to try
the camel's milk today?

Yeah, all right. Sure.

What do you think?

It actually tastes a lot like
goat's milk without the pungent taste.

- You have a little bit of milk here--
- A camel's milk mustache.

Would you pay $25
for a liter of camel's milk?

Maybe once and then see how I go.
(laughter)

Maybe, okay.

It's like four times
the amount of the regular milk

and I guess, as a novelty, it's all right,

(Arielle) Lauren's farm isn't the
only one of its kind.

Around a dozen other camel dairies
have popped up in Australia since 2014.

And the industry is growing.

According to one report,

it's projected to grow
by 8% globally each year,

for the next seven years.

It's a projection
that someone like Jeff Flood,

co-owner of Summer Land Camel Farm,

is really banking on.

We're nearly 800 camels now.

Besides, our operation here

represents pretty much 60% of
the industry in total in volume.

So it's a huge R&D project here--
Well, how do we build the herd?

We've got to take a feral animal
and convince it that it's safe to be here.

It's okay to give up milk.

There's a whole training and
domestication process in the front.

- (Jeff) Enjoy.
- (Arielle) Okay. Thank you.

(Jeff) So this room is a super clean room.

(Arielle) Okay, I noticed
some stuff in jars and some--

(Jeff) Yeah...

(Arielle) Some Tupperware,
what's going on here?

(Jeff) This is all
that cheese prototyping--

(Arielle) So... was this top secret?

- (Jeff) Yes. A lot of that is actually--
- (Arielle) Really?

(Jeff) Nobody's done stuff
with camel's milk work like we have so,

for example, has anyone made
a parmesan cheese out of camel's milk?.

Well, we have.

(Jeff) So this is, this morning's milk.

(Arielle) That is so white.

(Jeff) It is so white.

(Arielle) The color is very unnatural.

It looks completely different.

(Jeff) Well, here's to our health again.

(Arielle) Thank you so much.

Oh, that was really interesting.

It definitely tastes like milk.

It doesn't taste strong
like goat's milk.

Little bit on the salty side?

(Jeff) It's really clean.

What's exciting is there's
a really clean mouthfeel,

so it spreads evenly across the mouth.

The fat molecules, like I said,
are really small,

and you get the full flavor of the milk
all the way through.

What does the future
of this industry look like?

I would hope that in about
10 years' time everybody in Australia

has tasted camel milk,

whether it's a gelato
or cheese or milk,

or they've used the product
that's got camel milk in there,

maybe the skincare range or something,
the nutraceutical product that uses it.

(Arielle) Scaling camel's milk production
isn't easy because of their low,

and sometimes unpredictable daily yield,

but Jeff's farm is trying to do just that.

Lauren's approach
to camel's milk production

is a bit different, though.

She puts a lot of emphasis on cuddle time,

which she says helps the camels
feel more comfortable,

and more willing to give up their milk.

(Lauren) Every afternoon,
camel cuddling is part of the job.

(Arielle) Really? Well, that is quite a burden.

I know, It is, it's terrible.

It's horrible, must be very hard for you.

Yeah, very hard.

(Lauren) It was really great
coming from a perspective

that we weren't dairy people,

because we looked at camels as camels.

And we looked at their needs and--
(laughter)

He loves to cuddle!

(Lauren) Hello. It's okay. This is Rosie.

And from your perspective,
is this doing well?

Well, we're breaking even, at the moment.

and when we're just popping over
into the profit sector.

When you start anything,
it's always difficult,

but it's certainly moving along
in a nice direction,

let's put it that way.