Soybeans

Soy makes the (Asian) world go round... Soybeans are a high-protein food crop. They are an annual and are typically grown as a monoculture on industrial farms.

Agriculture

Growing areas of land used for soy to feed cattle is leading to the destruction of Amazon rainforest.

Soy as food

Health effects

Soy is a staple of the diet of the longest-lived people in the world, the Japanese, including the longest-lived Japanese people, those from Okinawa. While soy alone is does not deserve all the credit for this, it does appear to offer a number of health benefits.

Criticism of soy has become popular in recent years, blaming it for cancer and many other health problems. The evidence, however, is mixed. Moderate amounts of soy appear to be healthy - larger amounts may have certain health implications, but these are not clear at this stage.^[1]

Among critics of soy, fermented soy products are often regarded as healthier as components of concern the soybeans such as phytoestrogens are at least partially broken down.

Uses

Soybeans have many uses as food, including:

• Livestock feed
• Tofu
• Edamame (cooked young soybeans in the pod)
• Okara
• Soy milk
• Vegetable oil

Fermented soy food products include:

• Soy sauce
• Tamari
• Miso
• Tempe - pressed soybean cake from Indonesia.

Non-food uses

Soybean oil can be used to make bioplastic and other forms of biodegradable packaging.

Notes and references

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See also

• Legumes
• Traditional Field Crops (Peace Corps, 1981, 283 p.), Appendix H
• The Use of Organic Residues in Rural Communities, Chapter 9

External links