The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[jbog]

Why soyabeans are the crop of the century

Farmers in the US and Brazil are in a race to meet demand for livestock feed as meat consumption in China soars

This year may mark a turning point. With planting almost complete, soyabeans are likely to have unseated corn as the most widely sown crop in the US, analysts believe.

The soyabean has driven deep into Brazil’s interior savannah, Argentina’s pampas and the US rural heartlands. Harvests have been big enough to deliver measurable bumps to the economies of Brazil and the US over the past year. In the next decade the ivory oilseed will drive total cropland above 1bn hectares (10m sq km) worldwide, expanding more than barley, corn, cotton, rice, sorghum or wheat, the US Department of Agriculture has forecast.



https://www.ft.com/content/35af007e-49f6-11e7-919a-1e14ce4af89b?mhq5j=e3