How Sustainable U.S. Soy Is Fueling the Future
T
oday, the simple soybean is used in surprising products ranging from sneakers to biofuel. As demand for soy grows, U.S. Soy farmers are turning to sustainable practices and precision agriculture techniques to ensure longevity and cut their carbon footprint.
Though you may have grown up associating soy with sushi restaurants or stir fry recipes, today, the use cases for this unassuming legume have moved beyond grocery store shelves. In fact, it’s a key ingredient in thousands of everyday items, from the soles of your sneakers to the asphalt that lines your neighborhood’s streets.
U.S. Soy has long served a foundational role in our food supply, directly providing food for people as well as high-quality feed for livestock like chicken, pork and fish. As newer uses for soy further fuel demand, and as concerns about global food insecurity become more pronounced, U.S. Soy farmers are incorporating sustainable practices on their land to increase yields, optimize their farms and minimize their environmental footprints.
Luckily, they have plenty of support. Technological advancements like data-driven precision agriculture enable monitoring and optimization of everything from soil biodiversity to carbon sequestration. Such innovations are having an impact: According to statistics compiled by Field to Market for its 2021 National Indicators Report, U.S. Soy production grew 130% between 1980 and 2020, using roughly the same amount of land. Farmers also saw land use efficiency improve by 48%, irrigation water use efficiency by 60%, energy use efficiency by 46% and greenhouse gas emissions efficiency by 43% per bushel.
Technology has also had an inter-farm impact. Digital platforms now allow farmers to instantly exchange ideas and collaborate across state lines. Organizations like the farmer-driven and funded United Soybean Board (USB) support ongoing research and educational programs to continually advance sustainable farming practices as well as new, renewable uses for soy products. They also provide a community, both online and in-person, where farmers can connect to learn from others’ experiments, discuss innovative solutions for pest control or troubleshoot regional problems with their crops.
This information ecosystem has helped American farmers in more ways than one. “We have the research and development side helping us to grow a better bean; we have the demand side, domestically and internationally, making sure people understand the quality of the soybeans; and then we have the sustainability element, where we can share practices that we implement,” says Ralph Lott, a soy farmer based in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
Innovation at Work on the Modern Sustainable Soy Farm
Belinda Burrier, who grows corn, wheat, soybeans and hay in Frederick County, Md., has been a farmer for two decades. “We have several sustainability practices on our farm,” she says. “And we’re always looking for new ways to improve.”
For example—no-till farming, which has been standard on the Burrier farm since 1976, is just one of the many practices that contribute to more sustainable soy production. When soil is churned up by heavy machinery, it releases stored carbon into the atmosphere. Keeping land and soil disturbance to a minimum helps keep more carbon locked in the soil.
We have several sustainability practices on our farm—And we’re always looking for new ways to improve.
Belinda Burrier — U.S. SOYBEAN FARMER
Deploying cover crops is another way to keep carbon sequestered and improve a farm’s biodiversity. The benefits of this practice to farmers are twofold: Cover crops enrich the soil and support strong primary crops, while also allowing farmers to utilize their fields during their primary crop’s off-season.
On Lott’s farm, for instance, they intersperse wheat, rye and other cover crops among their soybeans. The Burrier farm employs a similar practice, using no-till drilling to plant cover crop seeds shortly after their soybeans are harvested. As a result, over the past 20 years, Burrier has seen the organic matter in their soil—a key metric of soil health—double.
Such observations are more than anecdotal these days. According to Meagan Kaiser, a U.S. Soy farmer and soil scientist, modern farmers also moonlight as data analysts. “We have the science and the tools and even the GPS locations to say, ‘I started here, I implemented this practice, I got this yield.’ And then we can measure again and see, not only did I improve that yield, but I also improved the microbial life in the soil, or its water- and air-holding capacity,” she says.
Kaiser explains that soil samples are analyzed in almost the same way as a doctor might assess a patient’s blood panel. When it comes to soil health, it’s particularly important to monitor nutrients like calcium and magnesium. “When in balance, these elements help create the physical structure that becomes a house for the microbes and the microbiome of the soil, which is kind of like your gut health,” explains Kaiser. Healthier soil, she goes on, creates a more nutritionally balanced final product. Other tangential benefits include having more biological material in the soil, which makes it more absorbent and helps cut down on runoff.
When in balance, these elements help create the physical structure that becomes a house for the microbes and the microbiome of the soil, which is kind of like your gut health.
Meagan Kaiser — Soil Scientist & Vice Chair of USB
On Burrier’s farm, consistent testing and analysis are part of the job description these days. “We know that we're sequestering carbon from our air soil test and our tissue tests,” she says. “These tell us exactly what kinds of nutrients we need to apply and when.”
Lott is also familiar with the power of data to make modern soy farming more efficient. “We use technology to replant everything on prescriptions,” he says. “We can actually plug a thumb drive into a tractor or planter, and it will direct the machine to drop more seeds in the lower-performing areas of the field and vice versa.”
A Crop with Surprising Versatility—and Global Impact
Burrier says it makes her proud to see soy as a primary ingredient in so many products her family uses every day. The other night, she noticed soybean oil was the first ingredient in the salad dressing on the dinner table. Since soy can be a less harsh alternative to chemicals like formaldehyde, it’s also commonly found in paints, adhesives, makeup, candles and more.
Burrier also uses biodiesel produced with soy oil feedstock—which has been found to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 86% over its life cycle compared to traditional fossil fuels—on her own farm to fuel her equipment. Soy oil is even an ingredient in the lubricant that keeps the chains on her planters running smoothly.
Aside from biofuel, there’s another way that U.S. Soy circulates back to the farm—as high-protein feed for animals. When a soybean is crushed, the oil separates from the remainder of the seed. This oil is then used for food, biofuel or other products, and the remaining soy meal is used to feed animals like chickens, turkeys, hogs or even fish. “That helps make the cost of raising those animals a little cheaper, and hopefully that meat in the grocery stores will be a little less, too. So, there's a big circle of benefits,” explains Lott.
As Lott alludes, the sustainability implications of the soy industry expand well beyond the borders of the farm—and even the U.S. “I’m well aware that whatever I do to grow my crop becomes part of the sustainability story of whoever uses my soybeans as part of their product,” says Kaiser. “As we talk about how we are going to reduce emissions, renewable diesel and vegetable oil feedstocks are a huge deal, and not just here domestically.”
