![]() ![]() Over the past 150 years, the world has lost half of its topsoil. While soil naturally erodes and degrades over time, agricultural activity, such as the constant plowing of land for crop cultivation, accelerates this process. Soil Erosion, Degradation, and Compactionįertile soil is essential for growing food, but in many parts of the world, the health of this vital material is rapidly deteriorating. 22 percent of the land was treated with fungicides, and 20 percent with insecticides. are genetically modified (GM) to be herbicide-tolerant (HT) so that they can survive being sprayed with high concentrations of these chemicals, allowing for even more environmental damage.Īccording to the results of the 2020 Agricultural Chemical Use Survey, conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), herbicides were applied to 98 percent of U.S. The lack of biodiversity in soy plantations makes the crops more prone to disease and more attractive to insects, leading to the increased use of pesticides. One of several problems with intensive soy farms is their use of agrochemicals. While this way of farming can make the land more productive (at least in the short term), it also damages vital natural resources such as soil and water and emits significant quantities of greenhouse gases. Soybeans are typically grown in rotation with corn, or in monoculture systems (where soy is the only crop planted). ![]() When grown directly for human consumption, soy can be a relatively sustainable source of nutritious plant protein, but the scale on which it is produced to feed farmed animals and the intensive farming practices used harm the environment in numerous ways. Although it is not naturally a part of their diet, farmed birds, especially those in intensive systems, are fed soy because it is high in protein and promotes growth. Poultry production is the world’s single biggest consumer of soy, with chickens and other domestic fowl gobbling up 37 percent of the total amount of soy produced. Globally, a total of just 19.2 percent of soy goes to food for humans, almost two-thirds of which is turned into oil, while 77 percent is used to feed farmed animals, primarily chickens and pigs. ![]() Some people mistakenly blame the high demand for soy on foods such as tofu, tempeh, edamame beans, and soy milk, but the real culprit is factory-farmed meat. In 2012, farms covering less than 250 acres-around 70 percent of soy farms-accounted for only 23 percent of the year’s soybean crop. While most soybean producers are small, a minority of large producers dominate the sector. Of these, close to 19,500 farms devote at least 1,000 acres to soy, with the largest soy crops stretching across more than 5,000 acres of land. How Many Soy Farms Are There in the U.S.?Īccording to the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, more than 300,000 farms in the U.S produce soybeans. Agricultural expansion for soybean production in the Midwest has destroyed vast swathes of tallgrass prairies. In 2020, around 35 percent of national soybean production came from just three states: Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. is found in the northern Midwest, where higher crop yields allow soybeans to be grown relatively cheaply. More than 81 percent of soybean-producing land in the U.S. Soy farms have invaded the Amazon rainforest, Argentina’s Chaco dry forest, Paraguay’s Atlantic Forest, Bolivia’s Chiquitania forest, Uruguay’s Campos grasslands, and Brazil’s Cerrado savanna. ![]() Because buying land that has previously been cleared by beef producers pushes cattle ranching further into forest areas, soy farms play a key role in driving deforestation. In South America, where the area of land used to grow soy more than doubled between 20, soybeans are commonly grown on former cattle pastures. The crop is also grown in Argentina, China, India, Paraguay, and various other places around the globe. Most of the world’s soy is farmed in these two countries. Brazil, the world’s leading soybean producer, harvests 133 million tonnes of soy per year, followed by the U.S. ![]()
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