The frank answer as to why soy is very popular as animal feed is that it’s cheap. It’s not about nutrition: soy is just a toasted, fiber by-product of the vegetable industry. Soybeans are processed to extract the oil for inexpensive cooking use.
Most animals now being fed soy-based feeds won’t even touch soy in the wild, because by instinct they know that it’s not meant to eaten. Raw soybeans are toxic, and the plant itself is considered poisonous.
A lot of essential nutrients vital for our farm animals’ health are lost in processed soy, leading to Vitamin E, zinc, and iron deficiencies. Soy likewise contains harmful, toxic levels of manganese and aluminum. It is also loaded with “anti-nutrients,” natural toxins that interfere with the digestion of protein, as well as isoflavone, a type of phytoestrogen. Phytoestrogens can lead to breast cancer and cause infertility.
And while eating soy is bad enough both for our animals and us, the sadder thing is that about 90% of soy currently being produced in developed countries like the USA is genetically modified, containing pesticides and other bacteria that are not meant for consumption.
If we are indeed what we eat, then by extension we should ensure that we give our livestock and poultry only healthy and natural feeds.
Back in 1999, the nonprofit organization Weston A. Price Foundation was co-founded by Geoffrey Morell. The foundation spends its efforts researching the best food source for farm animals. In 2009, Morell acquired a 95-acre property and turned it into present-day P.A. Bowen Farmstead..
Geoffrey Morell 