As the demand for sustainably-sourced products and ingredients continues to increase, the United Soybean Board (USB) and soy checkoff-funded independent, third party scientific research provides facts that show U.S. soy meets those demands. USB’s life-cycle analysis of soy production and processing and measurements against key sustainability metrics show U.S. soybean farmers continuously improve their sustainability performance.

"We’re taking an overall view of what’s already being done by U.S. soybean farmers to become more sustainable and informing our customers around the world about it," says USB International Marketing program chair Sharon Covert, a soybean farmer from Tiskilwa, Ill. "U.S. soybean farmers have always been sustainable; it’s at the heart of what we do. We have a tremendous amount of research to show how sustainable we’ve become."

USB continues to collaborate with partners including ASA, the checkoff-funded U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) and several state soy checkoff boards to compile specific examples that show how U.S. soy production is sustainable. The organizations intend to use the information to ensure U.S. soybean farmers’ freedom to operate and open market access for U.S. soy here in the United States and across the globe. The effort encompasses all U.S. soy and U.S. soybean farmers.

"This is a time-sensitive issue, giving us an opportunity to avoid trade interruptions with any of our U.S. soy customers who demand sustainable soy," says USSEC Chairman Roy Bardole, a former USB director and soybean farmer from Rippey, Iowa. "In fact, this provides an opportunity to open markets in the European Union, where sales of U.S. soy could be seriously inhibited in the future because of sustainability issues. It will be a huge boost to our efforts there."

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