soy

=SOY=

Brazil- http://assets.panda.org/downloads/factsheet_soy_eng.pdf Brazil is the home to the largest soy production in the world, Brazil is called the Saudi Arabi of BioFuel, much of the world biofuel comes from brazil and soy is a major contrubiter. Soy is the major income of the Brazilian people, much of the land is owned by companies outside Brazil who use it to farm soy. Massive forests are cut down to make way for the crops, which has caused alot of desforestation, resulting in many problems

China's production of Soybean
 * [[image:http://www.spraguephoto.com/stock/images/Cambodia/km05-16%20Farming%20Cambodia%20The%20Won%20family%20cleaning%20their%20soy%20bean%20patch%20Kompong%20Cham.jpg]]

The vegetable soybean is called //moudou// in Chinese. //Moudou// can be cultivated in many ways, such as a single crop, intercropping with other crops, or grown on dikes of rice paddy fields. So far, single cropping is the most widely used in China. There are also ways to harvest //Moudou// earlier such as using greenhouses, plastic mulches, and etc.

System components of farming vegetable soybean:
 * Soybean farming in Brazil || Soybean farming in China ||
 * Input:water, soil, Toxins(Chemicals used),genetically modified soybeans, Fuel (for large Machines), oxygen, nitrogen, Pesticides

Output:soybeans, nutrient-rich soil, soil erosion(due to deforestation)

System Characteristic:single crop || Input: water, soil, rice paddy, plastic mulch, oil ( using machinery to harvest crops), oxygen, nitrogen, vynnl channel, soybean germplasm.

Output: high energy pods, seeds, and nutrient-rich soil.

System Characteristic: intercropping with other crops, single cropping, dike cropping. ||

Environmental Impact:


 * Soybean in Brazil || Soybean in China ||
 * Negatives:
 * Millions of hectares are cleared for soy farms
 * Since 2003, 70,000 km² of tropical forest have been destroyed in the Amazon
 * Every year Brazil loses 55 million tons oftopsoil to this process.
 * 4,000victims die from Pesticides use.

Positives: Positives:
 * soil will be enriched with nutrients
 * * || Negatives:
 * fields and forest will be cleared for production
 * soybean farms are at high risk of obtaining diseases.
 * cause greenhouse gases indirectly through production of soybean
 * Millet, Rice and grain will get more nutrients with soybean
 * soil will be enriched with nutrients

Socio-cultural Significance: In China, soybean is important to the Chinese people because their direct centers around soy. Many products such as soy sauce, bean curds, and tofu are integrated not only in the Chinese's lives, but also in other countries such as Japan and TAIWAN (lol). Even more, soybean was used as one of the main crops in the Yellow River Valley and was used throughout China in the Zhou Dynasty and in the Qin Dynasty. In Brazil, soybean is important ot the people because just like the Chinese many of their daily lives centers around soy. For many Brazilians soy farming is their life, many spend their entire life working in a soy related job. Soy is also the reason for many conflicts in South America, many people are left landless due to land taken away for the creation of new soy fields
 * China**:
 * Brazil**:

media type="custom" key="3474742" Reference Sources:

http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/commodities/soybeans/

http://www.avrdc.org/pdf/soybean/farming%20systems.pdf

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/factsheet_soy_eng.pdf

www.uwex.edu/ces/ag/issues/**soybean**rust/documents/Grau_Teleconf_Dis_ Cycle.ppt