Soybeans

Soybeans are native to southeast Asia, but 45 percent of the world's soybean area, and 55 percent of production, is in the United States. The US produced 75 million metric tons of soybeans in 2000 of which more than one-third was exported. Other leading producers are Brazil, Argentina, China, and India. Much of the US production is either fed to animals or exported, though US consumption of soy by people has been increasing. Although the bean has been praised for various qualities, environmental groups like Greenpeace have complained that soybean cultivation in Brazil is encouraging Amazon rainforest deforestation.

Many traditional dairy products have been imitated using soybeans, and products such as soy milk, soy yogurt and soy cream cheese are readily available in most supermarkets. These products have similar texture and appearance to milk-based ones; however regular soy milk does not contain significant amounts of calcium, since the high calcium content of soybeans is bound to the insoluble constituents and remains in the okara. Many manufacturers of soy milk now sell calcium-enriched products as well. Tofu often contains high amounts of this important mineral since calcium salts are used to coagulate the protein in soy milk when creating tofu. Additionally, soy protein has been found to reduce renal excretion of calcium, an effect that is reinforced by soy products' high potassium content.

Most soy products must not be fed to infants. In some cases, infants fed normal adult soy milk on a long-term basis have become extremely malnourished and even died. In addition, soy allergies are one of the more common food allergies. In recent times, however, specially designed soy infant formula has been made available. Like dairy formulas, these new soy based formulas contains extra vitamins and other nutrients to make it compatible with an infant's needs.

Soybeans are also used in industrial products including oils, soap, cosmetics, resins, plastics, inks, crayons, solvents, and biodiesel.