Abstract

China is the origin of cultivated soybeans. Over millennia of agricultural history, ancient Chinese leveraged the multi-function of soybeans to develop a plant-based civilization, which maximized the support for population growth and social stability on limited arable land. However, in recent decades, with the significant increase in meat consumption, soybeans have witnessed a transition in their primary role in China, from a staple in the human diet to a source for animal feed and oil, which has led to a rapid increase in demand for soybeans. Today, China has become the world’s largest soybean importer, with annual imports accounting for approximately 60% of the global soybean trade. However, this transition has not only altered China’s traditional agricultural landscape but also triggered a series of environmental and health-related ethical issues, with the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) emissions from the livestock sector now accounting for nearly 60% of the national total and an increase of adolescent obesity. Therefore, there is an urgent need for China to re-examine the role of soybeans in its current food system and social development from an ethical perspective. By adjusting soybean industrial policies according to new comsupation ethic and inheriting traditional agricultural technology and dietary structure, China can promote the sustainable transformation of the soybean industry chain both domestically and internationally, thereby contributing to the synergistic achievement of local and global sustainable development goals.