this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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[–] pizzaiolo 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not to mention the amount of water required for operations like this

[–] hh93@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or the amount of rainforest that was burned down to produce soy to feed to those.

It's just irresponsible to accept meat as a default food option.

Even if you don't go vegan completely no-one should have it more than once a week. Slowly cutting back now makes it way less expensive and also easier once the regulations happen - and it also shows the politicians that they have people behind them for regulations like that, too

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

hardly any soy goes to cattle at all

[–] inasaba@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 year ago

the owid article shows exactly what I said.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com -5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Abbott 85% of the global soy crop is pressed for oil for human use: livestock are mostly fed the industrial waste from that process

[–] pizzaiolo 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Brazil sells soy mostly to feed pigs and chickens in China

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

pigs and chickens are mostly fed soy cake: the industrial waste from making soybean oil

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Going to copy my comment from above:

Soybean meal is not a byproduct of soybean production either. It's the main source of revenue

When we look at the most common extraction method for soybean oil (using hexane solvents), soybean meal is still the driver of demand

However, soybean meal is the main driving force for soybean oil production due to its significant amount of productivity and revenues

[...]

soybean meal and hulls contribute to over 60% of total revenues, with meal taking the largest portion of over 59% of total revenue

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669017305010

This is even more true of other methods like expelling which is still somewhat commonly used

Moreover, soybean meal is the driving force for the whole process [expelling oil from soy] because it provides over 70% of the total revenue for soy processing by expelling

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/5/87

Even other extraction methods being explored in research as well don't have soybean oil as the main driver of demand

From the results, soybean oil makes up around 24% of total revenues; revenue from insoluble fiber makes over 70%, due to the large amounts produced throughout the process. [of Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction]

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jasreen-Sekhon/publication/330375817_Economic_Feasibility_of_Soybean_Oil_Production_by_Enzyme-Assisted_Aqueous_Extraction_Processing/links/5c49d531a6fdccd6b5c586b6/Economic-Feasibility-of-Soybean-Oil-Production-by-Enzyme-Assisted-Aqueous-Extraction-Processing.pdf

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Soybean meal is not a byproduct of soybean production either. It's the main source of revenue

these aren't mutually exclusive

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

it's the bulk of the weight of the bean, but it isn't the reason it's grown

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

Hexane extraction is the most common method used in the industry to produce soybean oil due to its high oil recovery and lower production cost. With the demands of soybean oil increasing either in food or industrial applications, expansion plans are considered by many companies to increase production capacity.

I can't believe how dishonestly you are trying to cherrypick those papers

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

More than three-quarters (77%) of soy is used as feed for livestock.

https://ourworldindata.org/soy#more-than-three-quarters-of-global-soy-is-fed-to-animals

Soybean meal is not a byproduct of soybean production either. It's the main source of revenue

When we look at the most common extraction method for soybean oil (using hexane solvents), soybean meal is still the driver of demand

However, soybean meal is the main driving force for soybean oil production due to its significant amount of productivity and revenues

[...]

soybean meal and hulls contribute to over 60% of total revenues, with meal taking the largest portion of over 59% of total revenue

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926669017305010

This is even more true of other methods like expelling which is still somewhat commonly used

Moreover, soybean meal is the driving force for the whole process [expelling oil from soy] because it provides over 70% of the total revenue for soy processing by expelling

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/5/87

Even other extraction methods being explored in research as well don't have soybean oil as the main driver of demand

From the results, soybean oil makes up around 24% of total revenues; revenue from insoluble fiber makes over 70%, due to the large amounts produced throughout the process. [of Enzyme-Assisted Aqueous Extraction]

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jasreen-Sekhon/publication/330375817_Economic_Feasibility_of_Soybean_Oil_Production_by_Enzyme-Assisted_Aqueous_Extraction_Processing/links/5c49d531a6fdccd6b5c586b6/Economic-Feasibility-of-Soybean-Oil-Production-by-Enzyme-Assisted-Aqueous-Extraction-Processing.pdf

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

it is the bulk of the weight of the bean, but that isn't the reason it's grown

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Soybean meal is not a byproduct of soybean production either. It's the main source of revenue

these aren't mutually exclusive

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the context of production, a by-product is the "output from a joint production process that is minor in quantity and/or net realizable value (NRV) when compared with the main products".[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By-product

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

soy oil punches way above it's weight in value.

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hexane extraction is the most common method used in the industry to produce soybean oil due to its high oil recovery and lower production cost. With the demands of soybean oil increasing either in food or industrial applications, expansion plans are considered by many companies to increase production capacity.

I can't believe how dishonestly you are trying to cherrypick those papers

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's much more cherrypicked quote ignoring the "however" part about how soybean meal being the main driver of production

It's quite a thing to claim someone else is cherrypicing and ignore critical context. I don't see much point in continuing this discussion if that's how things are going to go

[–] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

I pulled that straight out of the abstract

[–] NataliePortland@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This was such a thorough article. Really good reporting.

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Smaller, more focused publications tend to have higher reporting standards is what I've noticed.

[–] CrypticCoffee@lemm.ee -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The cows are bad it seems, but it's glossing over natural gas companies not maintaining their infrastructure of leaky pipes. They are both larger emission producers, and completely unnecessary and unjustifiable.

Edit: It's hard to feel that the environmental debate has been hijacked. Even when an article lists 2 higher sources of methane production with corporate leakage in gas pipes, the focus is solely on beef. Is this industrial astroturfing, or vegans that have their own skin in the game so to speak and this isn't about the environment. The environment is a complex topic that requires multifaceted solutions to solving different contributory factors, yet it's been condensed down to this weird meat eating witch hunt.

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml -5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not all greenhouse gas production is equal nor should it be treated equally. If we eliminate the personal automobile from being needed to commute to work, literally nothing else about society needs to change and we are at pre-ww2 emissions.

[–] LSNLDN 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah like take methane which is 20 times worse than carbon as a greenhouse gas, but we don’t talk about that because not enough people want to stop eating meat - which accounts for more emissions than all types of transport combined

[–] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

We have to both tackle fossil fuels and meat production if we want to hit climate goals

To have any hope of meeting the central goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit global warming to 2°C or less, our carbon emissions must be reduced considerably, including those coming from agriculture. Clark et al. show that even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target. Thus, major changes in how food is produced are needed if we want to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

(emphasis mine)

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357