However, the impacts of Dutch tofu production are likely to be somewhat inflated relative to the United States. For one thing, Europe imports the vast majority of its soy from South America (PDF), whereas most of the tofu we eat comes from home-grown beans. (As a side benefit, American tofu eaters also tend to be less culpable for soy's role in deforestation in the Amazon. Still, it might be worth giving your favorite tofu company a call to find out where they source their beans.) In addition, one major American manufacturer, Nasoya, gave the Lantern significantly lower figures for its facility's electricity and natural gas usage, per pound of tofu, than were reported in the Dutch analysis. One final complication: Generating electricity in the United States produces about 15 percent more emissions, per kilowatt-hour, than it does in the Netherlands.

So we don't know exactly where American tofu falls on the spectrum of greenhouse gas intensity, but we can draw at least one commonsense conclusion: Your potential savings will depend on what you're swapping out in the first place. If every dinner you serve contains beef or air-freighted fish, then switching to tofu every once in a while will make a real difference. If you eat mostly chicken, your savings would be less impressive. Of course, there's a greener way to get your veggie protein fix: Locally grown edamame, anyone?

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