International demand for environmentally friendlier agricultural products is making its presence felt in Argentina, where big soybean producers, processors, traders and input suppliers are joining academics and green-advocacy groups to ensure the lucrative soy value chain does not drive deforestation. Argentine soy production has boomed since a variety of the crop that was bioengineered to tolerate herbicide won approval for commercial cultivation in 1996. Since then, soybeans have come to account for over half of Argentine land area under cultivation and rank as the top export-earner in the country’s otherwise crisis-plagued economy. Soy products known as the “soy complex,” including beans, oil, flour, and biodiesel, generated US$12 billion in exports in the first half of 2022, or 27.3% of the country’s total exports during the period, the government says. As soy farming has expanded, however, so have concerns about advancement of the so-called agricultural and... [Log in to read more]