Looks like big trouble is brewing in tofuland.
Perhaps they will only be able to afford real meat.
Interesting article about the supply of soy. My understanding is that the majority of soy produced goes into oil or soybean meal (which is fed back to livestock). This could potentially affect the price of a large range of products, including meat?
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With drought causing a lack of grass pastures and the need to have feed supplements/replacements the compound effects are wide reaching into many facets of our lives. If you want to replace meat protein with a vegetable/grain based one you still need adequate water to grow the crops, not as much as is needed to raise herds but it’s significant. If we try to replace that protein with fish you have to have significant wild & or aquaculture resources to meet the needs of our population.
Then there are many products, derived from both animal and plant crops which obviously can’t be grown successfully in drought. The flow on effects multiply and how do we then decide which areas are important to maintain and which we will have to ignore?
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Would do, and I understand Australia is a net importer of soy…so possibly deficit may be imported which could mean no change in price or soy or meat/dairy products…unless world market demand outstrips world supply.
http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/grains-and-other-crops/crop-production/growing-soybean
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I thought the same thing. The article mentions the China/US tradewar has resulted in a global soy price slump, so for those local distributors that would have to be a factor. Still, the local growers must be suffering 
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We imported around 800,000 tonnes of Soybean meal in 2009 purely for feedstock. This has been an increasing trend so guessing it is more than this now.
We sold at the same time about 10,000 tonnes of premium edible Soybeans to our Asian neighbours eg Korea, Singapore as our Soybeans are seen as a premium product.
Since that time I am not sure how the industry has expanded but would assume it has only grown.
Regardless of the OS price impacts the drought would be putting a lot of pressure on our export markets and the viability of our growers.
The trouble with the drought is that it increases our reliance on imported soy to keep herds healthy & to supply our food markets. Many previously pasture fed cows now need either heavy supplementing of or complete feed replacement, this increases the cost per kg of the beasts. Dairy farming that now has to rely on imported feedstock will end up costing the farmers more and will push the price of dairy products upwards. Regardless of how much the price of Soy goes up or down if you have to import more to meet the need then the cost of production of whatever uses that extra soy goes up. Small slumps in price while it does have a current impact on costs will quickly be dwarfed by the increasing amounts required.
This is reflected in many other crops where we rely on them for both human and animal consumption. Demand will drive price and the competition for a reduced crop will add to that demand pressure.
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