Do your organizational ESG goals entail supporting regenerative farming practices, reducing your carbon footprint, or ensuring transparency in your supply chain?
If so, U.S.-grown soy ingredients – such as soybean oil and soy protein – can help you achieve these goals, all while setting you apart from competitors and catering to customer demand.
Here are four ways you can meet your ESG goals in the new year.
1. Support Regenerative Farming
Adopting U.S.-grown soy ingredients means supporting U.S. farms, 96 percent of which are family-owned. U.S. Soy farmers are focused on their own ESG goals of preserving the land for future generations. In fact, 95 percent of U.S. soybean producers have partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to implement conservation programs on their farms.
Conservation programs involve sustainable agricultural practices and regenerative farming. These include nutrient, water, and pest management, as well as soil conservation methods such as crop rotation, the use of cover crops, and GPS systems that promote precision farming. U.S. Soy farmers’ regenerative farming methods help them reduce soil erosion, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy use while simultaneously improving water use efficiency.
Since 1980, U.S. Soy farmers have reduced greenhouse gas emissions per bushel by 42 percent; improved irrigation water use efficiency by 61 percent; increased land use efficiency by 47 percent, among other great strides toward sustainability – all while increasing soy production by 130 percent!
2. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
In addition to the above, U.S. Soy farmers’ soil conservation efforts help reduce their carbon footprint and increase soil carbon.
Soils serve as a primary organic carbon pool. Research has shown that agricultural practices that minimize soil disturbance and increase organic matter content can increase soil’s organic carbon. This additional carbon storage can offset carbon dioxide released from other activities.
Processes such as no-till and cover crops help U.S. Soy farmers ensure only minimal disturbance of soil, allowing the soil to retain more carbon and create a more conducive environment for underground organisms, like earthworms, whose activity support crop production. Soils that experience less disturbance also tend to break down residue from previous crops more easily, supporting crop rotation. Diverse crop rotations are also linked to increases in organic carbon.
These processes ensure that U.S. Soy has the lowest carbon footprint, compared with soy of other origins.
3. Ensure Supply Chain Transparency
U.S. Soy’s commitment to the environment extends to achieving a shorter supply chain. In the U.S. today, there are 86 million acres of soybean farms and four times more crushing and refining facilities for U.S. grown conventional and high oleic soybean oil compared to other oilseed processing facilities.
This keeps production closer to utilization, minimizing transportation costs, enabling supply chain transparency, and further reducing soy’s carbon footprint.
Farmers and food industry professionals are not the only ones who feel a responsibility to preserve the health of our planet. In fact, transparency and sustainability have emerged as top drivers of consumers’ purchasing decisions.
A recent United Soybean Board (USB) study found that 63% of consumers try to buy locally produced foods for sustainability reasons and over half of them (56%) are willing to pay a premium for environmentally friendly products. What’s more, the same study found that a third of consumers report being aware of sustainable soybean practices and most (68%) believe soybeans are a sustainably grown source of plant-based protein.
Embracing sustainable soy ingredients, such as soybean oils or plant-based meats made from U.S.-grown soy, as part of your ESG initiatives can help differentiate you from competitors in the eyes of an increasingly environmentally conscious consumer market. Plus, you can highlight the sustainability of your ingredients as well as your supply chain via labels like the Sustainable U.S. Soy mark.
Sustainable Soy Is Versatile, Nutritious, and Reliable
Need more reasons to love soy? Not only is soy sustainable, it’s also versatile, nutritious, and reliable.
Versatile Soy
Soybeans are rich in Vitamins E and K and are comprised of 19 percent oil and 36 percent protein. The soybean’s impressive composition lends itself to a wide array of culinary applications, from oils to plant-based protein.
- Conventional, or commodity soybean oil has a mild flavor, making it a smart substitution for other vegetable oils in salad dressings and dips.
- High oleic soybean oil, or HOSoy, has a higher concentration of monosaturated fatty acids and a lower concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) than conventional soybean oil. HOSoy’s high heat stability makes it a great choice for frying and baked goods. In fact, HOSoy offers among the longest fry life of any edible oil, making it ideal for elevated temperatures and extended-use applications.
- Soy protein ingredients – which include soy flour, textured soy protein, soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, soy fiber, and soy lecithin – can be used to moisten, enhance, and emulsify a plethora of foods.
Nutritious Soy
Conventional soybean oil has a wide range of health benefits, including serving as a source of vitamin E6, which is important for healthy vision and reproduction as well as blood, brain, and skin health.
Soybean oil is also high in vitamin K, which promotes healing and bone health. HOSoy is lower in saturated fat than some other vegetable oils and is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease when used as a replacement for oils higher in saturated fats, per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Soy is the only plant protein that carries the FDA’s heart health claim, and just one ounce of soy protein isolate offers 25 grams of high-quality protein.
Reliable Soy
The geographic diversity of U.S.-grown soybeans helps guarantee a steady supply of soybean oil year-round. In fact, soy is the largest oilseed crop – accounting for about 90% of U.S. oilseed production – and the second largest field crop in the U.S.
The supply of high oleic soybean oil exceeds all other high oleic offerings in North America combined. For food companies, this translates to competitive pricing and a reliable supply.
New Year, New ESG Goals
A new year brings new opportunities for the food industry to deliver nutritious and sustainable choices. Such choices are stepping stones to the larger goal of a more reliable and sustainable food supply to feed the world’s growing population.
Prioritizing U.S.-grown soy ingredients can help you meet ESG goals as you support local farmers and attract and retain environmentally-minded consumers — setting the stage for many happy, healthy new years to come.
For more information on the many food industry applications and benefits of U.S.-grown soy, and to learn how you can add it to your applications, check out our Soy Partner Resources page.