Claim
More than three-quarters of the world's soy is fed to livestock; only around 7% is eaten directly by people.
Soy grown for tofu and soy milk is a small slice of the total. Most soy feeds chickens, pigs and cows.
Why this rating: Trade and production data from FAO and supply-chain trackers agree on the broad split.
Supported by multiple systematic reviews or large, consistent studies using different methods, with few plausible alternative explanations.
Explanation
Most soybeans are crushed into oil and meal. The meal, which is most of the bean by weight, goes to animal feed.
Soy for direct human food is a small share, and most of it is not grown in deforestation frontiers.
Limitations
- How to allocate impacts between oil and meal is a judgement call that affects exact percentages.
Methodology
- FAO food balance sheets and supply-chain data (Trase) on soy end uses.
Sources for this claim
Each source links to our record of what it found, its limitations and what we used it for, with a link to the original.
- 1
Cite this record
More than three-quarters of the world's soy is fed to livestock; only around 7% is eaten directly by people.. The Balance of Health. https://thebalanceofhealth.com/claims/most-soy-is-fed-to-animals-not-people