Is soybean meal meant for livestock feed being diverted to make biodiesel?
To recognize how little the production of biodiesel affects the food supply – for both consumers and livestock – it helps to understand the relationship between soybean oil and soybean meal. During processing for biodiesel, about 18 percent of a bushel of soy is extracted to create a natural oil. It’s that natural oil that is used in biodiesel and the remaining 80 percent is left to make protein rich soybean meal. As a result, when demand is increased for soybean oil for use in biodiesel, the supply of soybean meal is actually increased. In fact, biodiesel produced from America’s soybean farmers used less than 12 % of the nation’s soybean harvest in 2007, and 81% of each soybean still went into protein markets to feed livestock and people. While soy is the most common feedstock used today, biodiesel is truly a sustainable fuel that can be produced from various non-food crops and waste – even used kitchen grease.
