The Soybean through World History
Euragri Members Workshop
On May 7, 2025
Context
Soybeans have become a cornerstone of global food security, underpinning vital sectors such as animal production, edible oils, food manufacturing, and retail. Their impact on modern agriculture and international trade has been transformative, but they are also deeply implicated in the growing fragility and unsustainability of the global agricultural and food system.
In this context, Dr Lisa Deutsch presented insights from the recently published The Soybean through World History (Routledge), co-authored with Matilda Baraibar Norberg. Lisa highlighted the crop’s complex socio-economic, ecological, and political dimensions, offering historical reflections that can inform today’s efforts to build more sustainable and resilient food systems.
One of Europe’s vulnerabilities lies in its heavy reliance on imported plant proteins. Project coordinator Dr Ewen Mullins outlined the aims of the Horizon Europe Innovation Action project Valpro Path and shared insights from its emerging results, providing a timely European perspective on the future of sustainable plant protein production.
Workshop program:
| Presenter | Presentation title | Approx video time
(hr: min; second) |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Lisa Deutsch Stockholm Resilience Centre |
The History of the Soybean and its lessons for the Future. Download here |
00:06:29 – 00:39:40 |
| Ewen Mullins, Teagasc. |
The Horizon Europe Valpro Path and Its Emerging Outcomes Download here |
00:39:53 – 01:29:05 |
Short Speaker Profiles:
Lisa Deutsch
Lisa Deutsch is a Senior Lecturer at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her research focuses on couplings between the ecological effects of globalisation of food production systems and national policy and economic accounts. She examines how global trade has changed the mix of inputs to food and feed in livestock and aquaculture production systems, where soybeans and fishmeal play central roles. Together with co-author Matilda Baraibar Norberg, Lisa discusses the political economy of agro-food globalisation and the often “hidden” social-ecological consequences of current modes of production and commercialisation through the lens of the soybean. The full open-access book “The Soybean through World History” is here.
Gianluca Brunori
Gianluca Brunori is a researcher with 30+ years of experience in international, EU, national, regional and local research projects. His research focuses on sustainable rural development and the sustainability of food systems, as well as the related innovation processes.