Patch #084I Heart Tofu

Agriculture itself is the problem. Processed soy based products are another.

Legumes, such as soy, only add nitrogen to the soil if they are tilled in or cut to make compost before they fruit. hence once they have produced a bean they are no longer adding nitrogen to the soil because the plant uses all of the nitrogen that the bacteria in the roots have fixed from the atmosphere to produce the seed. I think that it is more the problem of the pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and industrialization of agriculture that are the problem not tofu and soybeans.

I'm not really sure about this, but here goes. Soy replaces nutrients in the soil, particularly nitrogen. Because of this, it's rotated with other crops. So, say you want to grow corn, lettuce, and peas. In one field, you rotate lettuce with soy, in another you rotate corn with soy and in another you rotate peas with soy. So, you end up with three yields of soy and one of each of the other crops. Which is okay with me, since I love tofu.

What you aren't taking into consideration, however, is that almost all of the soy produced goes to feed cattle to feed humans who choose to be omnivores... Actually eating the soy uses FAR fewer soybeans than eating the burger.

Soy is one of the world's largest monocrops.