The myth makers and their adherents suggest that it's all down to plant-based diets and the growth in veganism and vegetarianism. However, this is nonsense. Careful analysis by Oxford University demonstrates that the huge growth in soy production is mostly down to the worldwide meat industry. 77% of all soy produced is used in animal feeds. Less than 7% of the soy we harvest goes into human foodstuffs such as tofu, tempeh and soya milk.
Global meat production has tripled in the last fifty years and the acreage of land devoted to soya production has quadrupled. Hence, huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest are now being used for soya farming. It's all about keeping animals fed not about tofu in the supermarket.
Sometimes people believe what they want to believe in spite of the evidence in front of their eyes. We have seen it with COVID and we see it in relation to how so many gullible Russians interpret what is happening in Ukraine.
And it's the same with soya. By far, its principal use is in feeding animals but I know that those who do not wish to accept this incontrovertible truth will continue to point their fingers at plant-based diets.
By the way, in terms of land use, direct human consumption of soya in its different forms is a far more effective type of nutrition than garnering it from butchered animals raised on soya. In their short lives animals burn off calories and they defecate and parts of them are not suitable for human consumption anyway. If all soya was harvested exclusively and directly for humans, we would use up far fewer precious acres than when animals are placed in the equation.
There's lots more I could say about the amazing soya bean and the climate issues surrounding it but I am going to leave the subject there for now.
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/w8gXnmP
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