Soybeans are one of the most versatile crops on the planet, used for everything from cooking oil and animal feed to biodiesel and food additives. The vast majority of the global soybean harvest never reaches your plate directly. Instead, it’s crushed into two main products: oil and protein-rich meal. That split drives nearly every major use of soy across industries.
Animal Feed: Where Most Soy Goes
Soybean meal is the single most important protein source in global livestock production. It accounts for two-thirds of the world’s total protein feedstuffs, outpacing every other oil meal and fish meal combined. The reason is simple: soybean meal packs 43 to 53% protein with an amino acid profile that no other plant source matches. It’s particularly rich in lysine, which cereal grains lack, making it the ideal complement to corn-based feeds.
Poultry diets typically contain 25 to 40% soybean meal depending on the bird’s age and purpose. Broilers and laying hens sit at the higher end. Pig diets run around 30% for growing and finishing hogs, with slightly less (20 to 25%) for piglets. Cattle operations use soybean meal too, though ruminants can extract protein from a wider range of feed sources. Because soy protein is highly digestible, farmers can formulate feeds with less total protein and still meet nutritional targets, which also reduces nitrogen runoff into the environment.
Cooking Oil and Processed Foods
Soybean oil is the world’s second most produced vegetable oil, trailing only palm oil. Global production is projected to hit 70.8 million metric tons in the 2025/26 marketing year, compared to 80.4 million for palm oil and 34.5 million for rapeseed oil. In the United States, soybean oil has long been the dominant cooking oil, used for frying, baking, salad dressings, and margarine.
Beyond the bottle on your counter, soy shows up in processed foods in less obvious ways. Soy lecithin is one of the most common food additives in the world. It’s an emulsifier, meaning it keeps ingredients that would normally separate (like oil and water) blended together smoothly. Lecithin molecules have one end that attracts water and another that attracts fat, so they form a stabilizing shell around tiny oil droplets in products like chocolate, baked goods, ice cream, and salad dressings. Even small amounts (as little as 0.1 to 2%) improve the physical stability of these products during storage. Soy protein isolates serve a similar structural role in processed meats, protein bars, and meal replacement shakes.
Biodiesel and Industrial Products
One of the fastest-growing uses for soybean oil is fuel. In the United States, the share of domestically produced soybean oil going to biofuel jumped from less than 1% in 2001 to 46% by 2022/23. Biodiesel production using soybean oil peaked at 1.8 billion gallons in 2018/19 before settling to around 1.7 billion gallons. Renewable diesel, a newer fuel that can be used without blending into traditional diesel, has been growing even faster and increasingly competes for the same soybean oil supply.
Outside of fuel, soybean oil is used in printing inks (particularly for newspapers, where soy-based inks replaced many petroleum-based formulas), industrial lubricants, adhesives, and some bio-based plastics. These niche applications are small compared to food and fuel but continue to expand as manufacturers look for renewable alternatives to petroleum products.
Direct Human Consumption
Whole soybeans and minimally processed soy products make up a smaller share of total use, but they’re culturally significant across much of Asia and increasingly common worldwide. Soy foods fall into two broad categories.
Fermented soy products include miso (a savory paste used in soups and marinades), tempeh (a firm, nutty block of cultured soybeans popular in Indonesian cooking), soy sauce, and natto. Fermentation breaks down some of the bean’s complex sugars and can change the nutritional profile. Unfermented soy products include tofu, soy milk, edamame (immature soybeans eaten as a snack or side dish), and soy flour. Tofu alone comes in a range of textures from silken to extra-firm and serves as a protein staple in dishes across East and Southeast Asia.
Soy protein also forms the base of many plant-based meat alternatives. Textured soy protein and soy protein concentrates give these products a chewy, meat-like texture at a fraction of the land and water cost of raising livestock.
Nutritional Profile and Health Claims
Soybeans are nutritionally dense: high in complete protein (containing all essential amino acids), fiber, and unsaturated fats. The FDA allows food manufacturers to claim that 25 grams of soy protein per day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. To carry this label, a single serving must contain at least 6.25 grams of soy protein.
The actual evidence, however, is more nuanced than the label suggests. An American Heart Association review of 19 studies on soy isoflavones (naturally occurring plant compounds in soybeans) found essentially no effect on LDL cholesterol or other blood fat markers. The cholesterol-lowering benefit appears to come from soy protein displacing higher-fat animal protein in the diet rather than from any special compound in soy itself. Claims about soy relieving menopause symptoms remain mixed, and the AHA specifically recommends against taking isoflavone supplements in pill or concentrated food form, citing uncertain effects on breast, endometrial, and prostate cancer risk.
Whole soy foods eaten as part of a varied diet are a different story from concentrated supplements. Populations with long histories of soy consumption tend to eat moderate amounts of whole or fermented soy, not megadoses of isolated isoflavones.
Global Production Scale
Three countries dominate global soybean production. Brazil leads with 180 million metric tons projected for 2025/26, representing 42% of world output. The United States follows at 116 million metric tons (27%), and Argentina produces 48 million metric tons (11%). Together, these three nations grow roughly 80% of the world’s soybeans.
That concentration matters because soybean farming, particularly in South America, has been a major driver of deforestation and habitat loss. Research modeling the shift from livestock meat to soy-based alternatives found significant potential reductions in biodiversity loss, land use, and agricultural water consumption. Notably, the decrease in soybeans needed for animal feed under such a shift would more than cover any increase in soybeans grown for direct human consumption, meaning no additional farmland would be required.