Soybean Origin: Sustainability, Nutrition, and Economic Value

Soybean meal continues to be the most common protein source for animal nutrition worldwide. However, most soybean meal used worldwide comes from Brazil, the United States, Argentina, and Paraguay. The environmental cost of transporting these soybeans from the American continent to other regions causes great concern among environmentalists, translating into certain pressure from consumers of animal products. Likewise, there is concern about the environmental impact of soy production in tropical environments, which can lead to deforestation, soil degradation, and overall more significant greenhouse gas emissions.

The Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) has compiled the environmental impact parameters of animal feed ingredients. This is an independent institute of the animal feed industry, and the feed industry is organized to provide a standard database of the results of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). The objective is to improve the sustainability aspects of animal-origin food. Although egg and poultry production has the least environmental impact, feed is the area with the most room for improvement. The environmental impact depends 70 to 75% on feed ingredients and feed utilization. Table 1 summarizes the GFLI results on the impact of solvent-extracted soybean meal by country of origin. It can be observed that the values currently available for sustainability parameters such as climate change and land use favor American soybeans due to the tradition in production and technology on lands adapted to this crop.
 
Table 1. Sustainability parameters of solvent-extracted soybean meal depending on the country of origin according to the GFLI database.

Source: Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) https://globalfeedlca.org/
However, this concern about sustainability is not new, and for decades, other feedstuffs have been evaluated as alternatives to soybean meal. However, the amino acid digestibility of soybean meals and the total content of digestible amino acids are better than those of sunflower or canola meal and DDGS, among others. Therefore, the overall sustainability balance may still be better for soybean meal. Ingredients with better digestibility always have a positive effect on the local environmental impact of the diet.
The utilization of the ingredient in the diet formulation depends mainly on a good description of the nutrient and energy content. In soybean meals, the country of origin is one of the factors by which a category can be differentiated or cr...