In a paper published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Dr. Chris Macdonald explored the best sources of protein currently available.
To answer the question, Macdonald had to build a new holistic scoring system that combines measures of environmental impact, health, affordability and availability into a single framework.
Applying the scoring system to 20 commonly consumed protein-rich foods, the analysis found a striking pattern: every product in the highest-scoring quintile was plant-based, while every product in the lowest-scoring quintile was animal-based. Tofu ranked first overall, while cheddar cheese ranked last.
The paper argues that many existing food rating systems focus on only one aspect of a product. While useful, these single-dimension labels can obscure important trade-offs and make it difficult to compare foods comprehensively.
TOFU DOMINATION
Link to open access article https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1677796/full
90%+ of soya grown is used for animal feed. Funny how those of us that eat a lot of tofu manage to find it cheap very easily, and I’m still finding new types of Tofu 35 years later… I’m in the UK, but surely wherever you are can’t be that far behind the rest of the world?
We get tofu blocks in various forms from all supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Tesco… etc.) for about £1 per block. Equivalent meat costs probably £3-£5. We sometimes get fresh (unpackaged) and deep fried tofu from our local Asian cash-and-carry, plus various tinned, vac-packed and jarred varieties. Occasionally we get “expensive” tinned braised tofu from local wholefood shops as a treat. Occasionally we get a Chinese take-away - several of our local ones do Tofu and Seitan. Our favourite one does their vegan dishes £1-£3 cheaper than the non-vegan options.
We don’t buy frozen ready meals, but vegan ones do exist. We like cooking, and cook a lot from scratch, but there are lots of jarred sauces and sachets you can get that are vegan - it’s completely possible to make a quick meal with a jar of pasta sauce, a tub of marinated tofu chunks and frozen veg, and it would still be cheaper than using frozen chicken chunks instead.
It’s there if you go looking for it. A vegan diet is pretty cheap in reality - about 30% cheaper the way we do it, and we’re not particularly frugal about it, nor do we put in much effort to achieve it. We buy the things we like where we know we can get them, probably just like you do.
Unfortunately I live in the deep woods in the upper midwest US, the closest Aldi is 40 miles away, there is a cheaper store that does not carry it maybe 12 mles off. Even Aldi and the large dominant supermarket chain are expensive for what it is though, about 2 dollars now for a pound or so.
It’s just not popular enough to have lower prices here, although aldi should be the same regardless idk. But pound for pound, it takes more tofu than meat to get full, so it’s not a 1 to 1 comparison on price.
I would have to make it to get a good price, after finding human grade soybeans not full of pesticides, and it’s an involved process judging by the video I saw on how they traditionally make it in East Asia.
Soy boy is an insult here, as to the lack of popularity keeping prices higher. It’s South America, what do you expect.
The US is strange then. This side of the pond, the UK is not considered a leading light in vegan progress. Lots of other countries have more vegans. I’ve lived in more rural areas in the UK (e.g. Wales) and although it was harder, it was still possible.
Smaller rural stores will cater to the lowest common denominator, and in the US, that’s going to be much more in the way of processed foods. I’m sure there are rural vegans, but they’re probably a bit less common. Certainly not the stereotype.
I often struggle to find more unusual ingredients in Aldi tbh. Great for the bulk of my shopping though, which is largely vegetables and grains.
Can you buy online? There are shelf stable tofu products
this just isn’t true. some 80%+ is pressed for oil
It isn’t one or the other, it’s both: soya oil and meal (what’s left after pressing the oil out) are so-called “co-products” - you get about 20% oil, and 80% meal. The meal goes almost exclusively into animal feed, the oil then goes into various other products, including animal feed and food industry, where it is used in mostly non-vegan products (because vegan products only constitute a small proportion of industrially produced food products).
Your 80% figure pressed for oil includes soya meal used for animal feed.
after it goes into an oil press and oil is extracted the waste product is fed to livestock. the oil is almost half the value but it’s only 20% of the weight.
Lol you show up in every thread talking about soybeans being used for animal feed. If beans weren’t used for animal feed then the entire northern hemisphere would be growing rapeseed because it’s a more efficient oil producer per acre.
A majority of soybean production exists only because it can be turned into animal feed after it’s processed.
and still, misinformation persists.
i think it’s true that being able to feed the waste product to livestock helps make teh decision to plant it easier. but it’s still the case that humans use about 93% of the crop before giving anything to livestock, and it’s a conservation of resources to give the waste from the oil production to livestock.
They feed the leftovers to livestock when they do so though so you both may be right.
that’s about 69% of the global crop weight. another 7% is fed to animals directly. that’s not 90%.
and feeding it to animals is a conservation of resources