Soy

• soy drives deforestation
• For a great report on soy in UK livestock feed, see The Landworkers’ Alliance, Pasture for Life, Sustain and Hodmedod (2023)

Soy production

• Ritchie, 2021 for a good article on soy production

Global production today is more than 13 times higher than it was in the early 1960s. Even since the year 2000, production has more than doubled.

Soy meal is not a by product of soy bean oil, it is the product

One might view soybean meal or cake as only a by-product of the production of soy oil, as its economic value is much lower (a kilogram of soy oil is about twice the value of a kilogram of soy cake). However, since the crushing of soybeans produces much less oil (20% by weight) than cake (80%), only a third of the overall value of a kilogram of crushed soybeans is derived from the oil, as compared with two thirds from the cake. Soy oil is also one of the cheapest vegetable oils on the commodity market, whereas soy cake is the most valuable of all oilseed cakes due to its favourable amino acid profile and the low levels of anti-nutritive compounds it contains after heat treatment.

Soy in the UK

Key resource is this 2020 roundtable on Sustainable Soy: t.ly/xOEXM