Climavores: The protein we love to hate

09/13/22 • 46 min

3 Listeners

Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.

When a lot of people think of soy, they think of allergens, overly processed food, and man boobs. There’s even a current full-court press in some corners of the nutrition community to blame seed oils like soybean oil for disease and obesity. And that’s not even taking into account environmental concerns around deforestation in the Amazon and heavy pesticide and herbicide use in soy monocultures.

The U.S. grows 90 million acres of soybeans annually, second only to Brazil in global soybean production. And almost all of that U.S. soy is genetically modified, another red flag for environmentalists.

But Mike and Tamar say soy has gotten a bad rap. And it’s time to set the record straight.

This week, they dig into the nutritional and environmental benefits of soy and ask how soy became a proxy for the evils of industrial agriculture.

Resources:

National Institute of Health on the myth of man boobs
GOOP on seed oils
farmdocDAILY on lower fertilizer use in soy vs. corn
Our World in Data on soy’s bad reputation and whether it’s justified

Have a question about food and climate change for Mike and Tamar? Leave a message on the Climavores hotline at (508) 377-3449. Or email us at [email protected]. We might feature your question on a future episode.

Climavores is a production of Post Script Media.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.

But Mike and Tamar say soy has gotten a bad rap. And it’s time to set the record straight.

This week, they dig into the nutritional and environmental benefits of soy and ask how soy became a proxy for the evils of industrial agriculture.

Resources:

National Institute of Health on the myth of man boobs
GOOP on seed oils
farmdocDAILY on lower fertilizer use in soy vs. corn
Our World in Data on soy’s bad reputation and whether it’s justified

Climavores is a production of Post Script Media.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Climavores: Mailbag episode! Bug protein, farmed fish, oysters, and more

Every episode of Climavores starts with a listener voicemail. In past episodes, Mike and Tamar have answered your questions about vertical farms (are they a climate-friendly alternative to traditional agriculture?), plant-based milks (are they actually better for the climate than dairy?), and beef (is it really that terrible for the planet? Spoiler: yes).

But our Climavores listener hotline is overflowing. So this week, Mike and Tamar are dedicating an entire episode to answering as many of your questions as possible. They tackle everything from soy’s bad reputation (did someone say “man boobs”?) to factory-farmed fish, bug protein and the topic Tamar loves to hate: regenerative agriculture.

It’s the mailbag episode! And it won’t be the last, so keep your questions about food and climate change coming.

To leave a message for Mike and Tamar, call the Climavores hotline at (508) 377-3449. Or email us at [email protected]. We might feature your question on a future episode.

Climavores is a production of Post Script Media.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next Episode

Climavores: Are processed foods evil?

Don’t miss our live episode of Climavores in New York City on October 20! Sign up here for a night of live audio and networking with top voices in climate journalism.

Draw a Venn diagram of people who care about the climate impact of their food and people who are suspicious of processed food, and you’ll see an awful lot of overlap. People love to hate on processed foods.

But historically, food processing actually freed women from the literal daily grind of putting food on the table. And from a climate impact standpoint, more processed foods actually contribute to less food waste. So what gives?

This week, Mike and Tamar dig into the pros and cons of processed foods. From Impossible Burgers to Doritos, almost everything we eat is processed. But there’s a difference between processed and ultra-processed and the impacts each has on our health and our planet.

Resources: