The Vegan Digest (TVD) probed Google’s “Gemini” AI-powered search engine in order to understand why plant-based proteins, particularly from soybeans (soy) and peas, are considered more environmentally sustainable. TVD also considered whether fertilizer and bee-based pollination are approaching their cost-benefit equilibrium.

Peas and soybeans are legumes. They practice nitrogen fixation and grow small nodules on their roots where helpful Rhizobia bacteria can be found. Rhizobia transform airborne nitrogen into nutrients for the plants to grow. Because peas and soy produce their own nitrogen-based nutrients, they rarely need the synthetic nitrogen-based fertilizer that other crops such as corn or wheat use. It’s observable that soy and peas are an industry preference as core ingredients for plant-based alternatives to meat.

Syrup from the agave plant is also another plant-based option to its more popular nonvegan alternative, honey syrup. Able to thrive in arid environments, agave plants do not need as much water as other prominent crops. Agave plants also grow in low-nutrient soils and therefore generally require minimal synthetic fertilizer.

Soybeans are comprised of one-third protein and peas are approximately one-quarter protein content. It is largely estimated that global production amounts to approximately 350 million tonnes of soy and approximately 15 million tonnes of peas per year. 

Over 70% of the world’s soy is fed to livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens. As global demand for meat rises, so does the need for more soy to feed livestock. Due to this demand, soy production drives deforestation in South America. 

Honeybee hives are often transported thousands of miles for commercial farming purposes and are sometimes culled as a matter of business practice. Even though worker-bees and queen-bees spend much of their ‘relatively short’ lives maintaining hives and breeding, farmed bees often experience a worse ‘quality of life.’

Honey is produced by bees for their nutrition and consumption within their beehives. Commercialized bees are fed less nutritious deconcentrated sugar solutions instead of the honey they produce. A transition to agave for syrup-based sweeteners instead of honey, decreases the reliance on these managed colonies.

In the Midwest U.S., soybeans and other plant-based crops occupy vast areas of arable land. As with the rest of the world, soybeans largely serve to feed livestock. It follows that a choice for soy-based meat alternatives consumes less soy than a choice for animal-based beef. End-consumers of soy-based meats and milks (popular plant-based substitute end-products) could be more exposed to the risks of large-scale soy production.

Much of the global soy production is already genetically modified to survive significant chemical spraying. Large-scale soy production can 1) introduce risks of diseases harmful to humans via ingestion, 2) contaminate the environment, 3) increase vulnerability to shortages due to droughts, and 4) create risks of shortages arising from harvests that need to be eliminated due to soybean plant infections.

Similar to how there are risks to large-scale plant production that circumvent livestock in producing end-product consumer foods, it’s important to note that many of the plant crops humans consume largely rely on bees as industrial pollinators.

Prior to 1910, farmers were limited by how much nitrogen was naturally occurring in the soil and how much fertilizer was available; this limited how much food that could be grown. Discovery of the Haber-Bosch process allowed for the use of extreme heat and high pressure to pull nitrogen gas from the air and combine it with hydrogen gas to create ammonia. Ammonia is a highly concentrated and efficient source of nitrogen, and nitrogen serves as a primary nutrient that’s essential for nearly all stages of plant life. 

With the Haber-Bosch process, humans could scale production of fertilizer and ramp up production of crops and livestock. Without the Haber-Bosch process, humans wouldn’t grow enough feed to support the approximately 1.5 billion cows on Earth and the approximately 75 billion chickens slaughtered each year.

Cows are inefficient at converting feed to beef, with a range from 5 to 25 times more pounds of plant-based feed needed to yield one pound of beef. And even though cow-based protein is more easily digestible for humans than plant-based proteins, cows require nearly 100 times more land to produce the same protein per gram from plants.

The Haber-Bosch process consumes large amounts of energy, creates significant carbon emissions pollution, and accumulates unused nitrogen in fertilized soil causing runoff into water streams that lead to ocean pollution.

Synthetic fertilizer (Haber-Bosch) solved global food scarcity and allowed for rapid population growth on earth. Current reliance on synthetic fertilizers and livestock has led to severe environmental consequences, including deforestation and pollution. Plant-based syrups including maple syrup, rice-based syrup, fruit-based syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, tapioca syrup, agave syrup, and more can alleviate exploitation of bees. TVD enjoys the ready-use profile of consumer-packaged agave syrup and deems agave nectar to be preferable as a direct honey replacement due to its viscosity and solubility.