Soy Vey!

This story in the Christian Science Monitor caught my eye. It's entitled "Soy replaces silk in the world of sustainable fashion." It's about supposedly eco-consious fashion designers making their couture dresses and whatnot out of supposedly eco-friendly fabrics -- fabrics made from, among other things, soy.

Now, I like my soy milk and tofu as much as the next guy, but let's get one thing straight: There is nothing inherently sustainable about it. The soy crop is, by and large, an intensively farmed monoculture, the great bulk of which has been genetically modified to withstand the herbicide glysophate, aka Roundup. According to this Pew study, as of 2004, GMOs made up 85 percent of the US soy plantings in the U.S..

Lately, soy agriculture has also become one of the main drivers in the destruction of the Amazon as well as the savannah lands of Brazil and Argentina. You could argue, (and I'd be inclined to agree) that this is a function of overpopulation, and its evil twin, overconsumption. But that doesn't make it any more sustainable. Ditto for the fashion industry.

There,...I'm glad I got that off my chest.