Soybeans and the Amazon

The New York Times ran an article today about increased deforestation of the Amazon jungle in Brazil. What is surprising is that we don't find the usual culprit—beef used for US fast food—at the center stage. Rather, a huge increase in soybean farming is to blame. And the reason for the increased soybean production?

Economists say that the main spur to the soybean boom is the emergence of a middle class in China, much of whose newly disposable income has been spent on a richer, more varied diet. During the past decade, China has been transformed from a net exporter of soybeans to the world's largest importer in some years of whole soybeans as well as oil and meal byproducts.