Soy has been a staple crop in Asian cultures for millennia, but today it has become of the world’s most essential and profitable agricultural commodities - and not for the reasons you’d expect. What’s really driving the expansion of soy cultivation? And what are its environmental impacts?
Animation by Jaime Burton
Script & Narration by Jane Alice Liu
Article by Molly Grace Melvin
Here are some facts:
- US & South American dominate production
- Soy plant production takes up an area the size of France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands combined
- Soy is the second largest driver of deforestation after beef
- 80% - 90% of soy beans are feed to farmed animals
- Only 6% is turned into produce for human consumption
- To product the same amount of protein soy needs much less land than any animal product, in some cases up to 32 times more land is required for animals
- If the world were to swap meat protein for soy protein agricultural deforestation would decline by as much as 94%.
