How sustainable is soy?

How sustainable is soy?

SPI Group has been the home of many protein products over the years (whey, wheat, rice, pea, beef).  But our favorite has always been soy.  Why?  First it is sophisticated, we can use soy protein for nutritional or functional improvement in almost every food product.  Second, soy is a complete protein, with a PDCASS of 0.99 it contains all of the essential amino acids required for growth in infants and at risk populations.  Soy is an equivalent protein to animal protein for school food service and it costs less in-use.  Third, it is available.  Soybean use for food is 2-5% of the US crop meaning we can always expand how much humans consume.   This also means soy protein production is dependent on nothing, it is not a waste stream or intermediate product.  Soy protein comes from soybeans.  Straight up.

The last and most important reason that soy protein is important today is that we can grow more soy protein with fewer resources than any other complete protein source:

One acre of farmland can produce:

  • 20 pounds of beef
  • 78 pounds of eggs
  • 82 pounds of milk protein products
  • 356 pounds of soy protein

Have you ever visited my favorite soy video?  Something about the music and the way the data jumps off the screen is compelling. Click here for the DuPont video.