Background

When thinking of soy, perhaps tofu, soymilk, soy sauce, or edamame comes to mind. Shockingly, only six percent of soy production goes towards food items like these that are directly consumed by people. The majority (upwards of seventy percent)[1] is used as animal feed for cows, chickens, pigs, and fish. While its other fates include soybean oil for biofuel and lecithin as a food additive, most of soy produced around the world is contributing to the global meat market, which is rising steadily. There has been a huge boom in demand, as it is a very high-yielding crop in protein and nitrogen fixing plant, reducing the need for fertilizer. Over the past fifty years, soy production has increased ten fold and is only projected to increase.

            The major players in soy trade are Brazil, the US, the EU, and China, among others. China consumes vastly more soy than any other country, importing mainly from the United States and Brazil and other South American countries. The European Union is also a large consumer, importing from many of the same producers. Because it is both a key soy exporter and home to some of the most important and beloved ecosystems worldwide such as the Amazon, we will focus on Brazil on this webpage.

 

Spotlight issue: deforestation

The increase in demand for soy has led to rapid expansion of farms into vital ecosystems in South America, including forests, savannahs, and grasslands. Replacement of these habitats with soybean plantations not only threatens biodiversity, but also reduces ecosystem function and emits vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Ecologically, it’s a disaster for the country.

Fortunately, the stopping of this process has already been set in motion. In somewhat of a perfect storm of factors, the Brazilian government, environmental NGOs like Greenpeace, and large agribusiness industries like Cargill have all joined forces to help slow deforestation. Cracking down on farmers, ranchers, and land speculators, the government has even organized a police team that sets out to find illegal clearing for soy operations. They use overhead video surveillance to monitor land use changes and target newly created farmland. Greenpeace launched a campaign exposing the effects of soy on the Amazon, successfully rallying consumer awareness on the issue and using that as a lever to target traders like Cargill and secondary buyers like McDonalds, who then signed onto a soy moratorium.[2] This was the first voluntary zero-deforestation agreement implemented in the tropics, and its stipulations prohibit any purchasing of soy grown on land that was deforested after 2006. Luckily, it has been extremely successful, lowering the rate of land clearing for soy from thirty percent to less than one percent.[3] But many people claim it won’t be necessary much longer, if Brazil implements a rural land registry that would allow for better government monitoring and official licensing of agricultural operations. It seems though, that the market pressure of the moratorium might be more compelling than the government enforcement applied through the land registry. Other economic tactics include pressure from consumer countries. For example, the Netherlands has established a national commitment to import only Round Table for Responsible Soy (RTRS) certified level soy or equivalent. The RTRS is an organization with members from all parts of the soy supply chain, and they have begun creating their own voluntary certification scheme that ensures soy has “originated from a process that is environmentally correct, socially adequate, and economically viable.”[4]

This seems like a positive endeavor, but one voice that is possibly left out here is that of the soy farmers, especially those with a small-scale operation. They may not be able to afford the certification, and they may be the ones suffering from government fines. It’s imperative that there is a system of incentives set in place for them to grow on already cleared land, otherwise we might be saving the environment at the cost of those who are already marginalized.

 

Future Implications

From what we have shared on this page, it may sound like a success story. After all, Brazil has lowered its carbon output more than any other country just by slowing forest loss. That being said, populations are still rising and soon soy cultivation will require more land than is readily available without deforesting. In terms of personal choice, opting for less meat consumption can help decrease demand for soy.

 

Footnotes

[1] World Wildlife Fund. The Growth of Soy: Impacts and Solutions. Gland, Switzerland: WWF International, January 2014. Report.

[2] Holly K. Gibbs, Lisa Rausch, Jacob Munger, Ian Schelly, Douglas C. Morton, Praveen Noojipady, B. Soares-Filho, Paulo Barreto, L. Micol, and Nathalie F. Walker. “Brazil’s soy moratorium.” Science 347, no. 6220 (2015): 377-378.

[3] Ibid. 378.

[4] World Wildlife Fund. “Soy Roundtable.” http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/responsiblesoy/soy_roundtable/.

 

References

Cargill. “Working with Greenpeace to stop Amazon deforestation.” June 11, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQZpqUPlzk.

Gibbs, Holly K., Lisa Rausch, Jacob Munger, Ian Schelly, Douglas C. Morton, Praveen Noojipady, B. Soares-Filho, Paulo Barreto, L. Micol, and Nathalie F. Walker. “Brazil’s soy moratorium.” Science 347, no. 6220 (2015): 377-378.

Tollefson, Jeff. “Battle for the Amazon.” Nature 520, no. 7545 (2015): 20.

World Wildlife Fund. “Soy Roundtable.” http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/responsiblesoy/soy_roundtable/.

World Wildlife Fund. The Growth of Soy: Impacts and Solutions. Gland, Switzerland: WWF International, January 2014. Report.