Soy is a much more efficient form of protein
Around 80% of the world’s soy production is used to feed animals, and only 7% is directly consumed by humans (like tofu, soy milk, etc.). Replacing meat with soy reduces the clearance of natural vegetation, per kilogram of protein from animal sources, by 96%. So much of the land currently used to grow soy to feed animals can be freed up for the forests to grow back instead.
A paper in Nature estimates that, compared to soy, the carbon cost of
- Chicken is 6 times higher
- Milk is 15 times higher
- Beef is 73 times higher
- 1 kilo of beef protein has a carbon cost of 1,250kg. Or roughly equal to driving a new car for a year, or to one passenger flying from London to New York and back. [The Guardian]
