The United Soybean Board and National Oilseed Processors Association report U.S. soybeans add $124 billion to the economy but they are silent on the billions in farmer and ecosystem losses from falling soybean nutrition value and outdated protein-based pricing.

Soybean checkoff misinformation has contributed to farmers losing billions in soybean and corn feed sales to synthetic substitutes since biotechnology debuted. A five-state checkoff team called Northern Soy Marketing silently revised 12 years of soybean value misinformation in July 2023 after nutritionists and Proactivism.com publicly challenged the group’s value calculations.

NOPA members use inaccurate protein pricing for soybean meal and soybean farmers are not paid fairly for delivering more feed or oil value. A previous checkoff-funded study found that soybean quality targets used by United Soybean Board and NOPA (35 percent protein and 19 percent oil) fail to capture about 50 percent of the nutrient and oil value. See Fig. 4 in Characterizing Soybean Meal Value Variation across the United States: A Swine Case Study.  These issues remain unaddressed by the farmer-funded soybean checkoff   system and NOPA.

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