Negative Impact of soy production

While soy is an important source of protein for humans and animals, and of income and foreign currency in producing countries, it also entails extensive cultivation and the expansion of agricultural frontiers. Environmental issues range from deforestation and water pollution to soil erosion and loss of biodiversity. Significant greenhouse gas emissions are generated from land use change, and from production and application of fertilizers for soya cultivation. Soy expansion also generates social conflicts and tension between producers and local communities – concerning, for example, land rights, labour rights and rural migration.

Thanks to the moratorium on the production of soy the deforestation of the Amazon is on the decline. Wholesalers

are refusing to buy soy produced on land in Brazil’s Amazon region that was cleared after July 2006. Today, some 5,000 square kilometers of forest are cut down each year. Ten years ago it was five times as much.