Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli) vs Tofu: carbon footprint
Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli) or Tofu? Here's what each one costs the climate, measured per kilo over its whole life.
Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli) runs about 0.51 kg CO₂e a kilo. Tofu runs 3.16.
Tofu is the heavier choice, about 6.2× Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli).
Swap Tofu for Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli) and you cut about 2.65 kg a kilo, near 84% off.
Per kilo, that gap is a 16 km drive in a diesel car.
Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli): About as low as food goes. Mostly the farming and getting it to the shelf.
Tofu: Tofu and soy milk hand you protein at a fraction of beef's footprint. The swap that actually moves the needle.
Per-kilo numbers skip portion size and how the food was farmed, so take them as the shape of things, not the last word.
More match-ups
Figures from OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.