EA - Growing the US tofu market - a roadmap by George Stiffman

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Growing the US tofu market - a roadmap, published by George Stiffman on October 20, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. This post is a roadmap to growing the US tofu market. There is a ton of delicious impact to be had, and I hope more of you in the alt protein space will consider joining me. (Thank you to Kris Chari and Nick Corvino for helpful feedback.) A yuba-based Napoleon pastry from my forthcoming book, Broken Cuisine. Photo credit: Ryan Tanaka Why should I care about tofu? When I first visited China, I assumed tofu was just a pasty, white block. I never would’ve imagined that tofus could melt. or that some varieties tasted like aged cheese. or that others had a bread-like crumb! Chinese tofus are some of the most culinarily exciting plant-based proteins in existence. Yet, hardly anyone outside the Chinese community knows they exist! Yunnan juicy tofu, grilled over charcoal with seasoned chili powder. The average American eats just 1 block of conventional tofu per year. Yet, even this tiny consumption, added up, is enough to displace millions of animal lives from factory farms each year. While I personally love firm, soft, and silken tofu, these ingredients are poor fits for western cooking styles and taste preferences. In contrast, several Chinese tofus are much, much, much better fits. If we can find the "avocado toast" of these tofus, expand ingredient supply, and successfully promote, the market for these varieties could thus be many times larger, someday saving 10s or 100s of millions of animal lives each year. Beyond directly reducing demand for meat, promoting Chinese tofus could have several other benefits: Chinese tofus could make plant-based cooking more appealing to chefs in ways that meat analogs (plant-based meats, cultivated meat, etc.) cannot. If true, this could turn some of our biggest stalwarts to plant-based progress into allies and evangelists, shifting the culture around dining. Shifting culture could have more impact than merely substituting meat for mock meat or tofu. Better tasting vegan food seems necessary for moral circle expansion. Chinese tofus are one of the best opportunities to expand vegan cooking, as their unique culinary properties can do things that meat and vegetables cannot. (This seems especially pressing if you have short AI timelines and worry about value lock-in, but there don't seem to be many interventions currently being pursued.) Making tofu a high prestige food in the States could possibly raise it's status in China. After living in China for several years and studying the Chinese farmed animal welfare space throughout 2020, I am pretty pessimistic about near-term prospects for animals. Promoting tofu in the west, to raise its status in China, could, however, be a straightforward and significant way to contribute. Because traditional plant protein advocacy is so neglected within the alt protein space, there could be a lot of information value in trying to promote Chinese tofus. Beyond being massive in scale and very neglected, I am hopeful that this opportunity is tractable, as you'll see below... Wait! What is Chinese tofu? China is the birthplace of tofu and has over 20 distinct varieties. While some of these varieties are common across Asia, the majority are specific to Chinese cooking. There are a few, in particular, that seem to be great fits for western cooking styles: Shanghai tofu ( shanghaisuji) - ultra high in protein, rich/eggy/custardy flavor, bready structure that can be cooked into cakes, soup dumplings, "crostini", protein crumbles, etc. Spongy tofu ( qianyedoufu) - a fishcake-like tofu, pre-seasoned (NOT bland), delicious blended, braised, or grilled, can be dense and chewy or light and silky. Fermented tofu ( furu) - a funky, cheesy, umami seasoning that's blended into sauces or rubbed onto brea...