For last week’s post, I put together a graphic showing different kinds of butter, dairy and non-dairy, ranked from 0 to 5 Green Stars.* To follow up on that, here’s a graphic showing ethical scores for various sources of protein in our diets. This is a simplified, somewhat subjective picture, but I think it’s useful. I’ll follow it with some notes and disclaimers 😉

*The Green Stars scale represents social and environmental impact, as you probably know if you’ve been here before.

The scores pictured above are weighted averages – ranges that cover the majority of products sold in each category. Some categories include a fairly wide range of Green Stars scores. For example, certain kinds of seafood (small pelagic fish, wild salmonids, farmed bivalves) score much better than others (lobster, shrimp), especially when certified.

These rankings are based on years of evaluating products and keeping up with the science on the various impacts of food. For background, take a look at the environmental footprints of protein-rich foods, the nine planetary boundaries, the ethical issues with dairy, the social impact of meat, and posts on tofu (soy), Beyond Meat, Quorn, and bread.

For red meat – especially beef – the environmental impacts are so devastating (e.g., land use and greenhouse gas emissions) that it’s hard to even put it on the same scale as the other foods. Even more so when we consider how much carbon could be captured on land that’s currently used for beef production (reforestation, rewilding, etc.).

Choosing chicken or pork over beef is a big step up for meat-eaters. Even if the score changes from 0.1 Green Stars for beef to 1.0 Green Stars for chicken, it’s still a 10-fold improvement. And 10-fold is actually a good approximation of the difference between beef and chicken/pork across key environmental footprints.

Cheese has large environmental footprints – significantly larger than chicken and pork on metrics like land use and carbon footprint – so it ranks pretty low on the ethical scale. I even deliberated whether to rank cheese lower than chicken and pork. Sorry! I know that’s a bummer for cheese-lovers and vegetarians, including myself. But the more I learn about the footprints of cheese and reality of the dairy industry the more I’m avoiding cheese. To put a more positive spin on that, I eat cheese so rarely now that I really appreciate it!  

Of the animal proteins that vegetarians consume, eggs are considerably better for the environment than cheese. Again, there’s a spectrum of ethical scores – clearly pasture-raised eggs are more humane than eggs from intensive farms. I’ll revisit eggs soon as progress is being made on addressing one of the main ethical issues in the industry. 

I put whole grains on the list even though most people don’t think of them as a source of protein. But a good bread flour is around 12% protein – about half that of meat. Wheat protein forms the basis of the meat substitute seitan.

There are a few protein sources that I didn’t show on the list, including single cell protein (SCP). Quorn is the most common example of a SCP product – fungal biomass that’s grown in a fermenter, fed on wheat or other starchy plants. I’ve rated most Quorn products 4-5 Green Stars.

Legumes are among the best choices of dietary protein whether its lentils, beans, edamame, peanuts, dal, tofu, soy milk, or meat substitutes such as Beyond Meat. Legumes achieve high protein yields per hectare on low agricultural inputs while also helping to restore soil. 

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Making the graphic above has reminded me to not forget the big picture. We sometimes get caught up with details or distracted by misinformation campaigns and lose sight of the forest for the trees. The big picture in our food system is that we need to obtain as much of our protein as possible from items towards the right side of the scale above.

Choosing plant proteins such as legumes over beef ranks as the most important and accessible single action to support the planet and people. Specifically, to mitigate climate change, protect our remaining forests, preserve biodiversity, reduce water pollution, and ensure food security for a growing population.