Attack of Soyzilla: The Eco-conscious Vegetarian's Dilemma

Incredible, unstoppable titan of terror!
(Picture from: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - where you
will also find an article about the "economic magic" of soy).

Upon reading my blog entry, undoubtedly the one about meat-eating, a friend of mine sent me a link to a very interesting clip from a special report called Argentine: Le soja de la faim that was shown on the French/German channel ARTE. The report is about GMO soy production in Argentina, the role of agri-giant Monsanto, and the looming social and ecological disaster it is becoming for the country. Coincidentally, the issue of the environmental impact of soy production was also a topic brought up at the dinner table tonight.

To be fairly Canadian, here is a link to an English language article by Marcela Valente, from Inter Press Service News Agency, on roughly the same subject: AGRICULTURE-ARGENTINA: Soy Overruns Everything in Its Path.

In most produce stores one can find tofu and soy milk, and in the stores that service the more conscious eating crowd, one can find some of the novel products from whom I like to call "the soy engineers" like: soy cheese, soy dogs, soy burgers, soyogurt, soy gelato, and soy "ground meat." Diversity should be the golden rule to any diet but eating too much soy seems clearly like a bad idea - even if it is in a diversity of shapes, textures, and consistencies. I was in a vegetarian food store once and saw that I could buy soy moulded into a whole fish shape, or "beef slices".

Soy is a favourite and easy alternative to meat for vegetarians and healthy eating fans. I know that it was the first thing I found myself consuming more often when I started laying off the meat. I still hit the soy milk pretty hard, however, soy is also used for other purposes such as bio-fuel. Perhaps this is why it has become a major cash crop, and one of the causes of deforestation in parts of the world, including the Amazon, to pave the way for massive farms. The agricultural commodities market is also overrun with GMO soy. This means that sometimes, even if one's intentions are well-meaning to start, without informed decision-making, one could still potentially end up where s/he started.

So far, from what I've gathered through conversations with my nutritionist, happy vegetarians, and knowledgeable eaters, and through books and my travels on the interweb, some good alternatives to soy are legumes such as chickpeas and other beans such as kidney beans, red beans (adzuki beans), navy beans... Also, try to incorporate into meals lentils, or grains such as quinoa, millet, barley, or sorghum, to name a few.


Sincerely,
your colleague in trying to make more thoughtful choices,
-Bonnie