Co-op pledge to only sell sustainable soy

In a move to tackle deforestation and biodiversity loss the convenience retailer Co-Op has committed to only buying sustainable soy by 2025. Most soy produced is used for animal feed and in some tofu and meat substitutes.

In an interview with Food Navigator, the Co-op's sustainable sourcing and fair-trade manager Sarah Wakefield said: "there are certain things that customers just expect you to do and this is one of them."

The retailer will operate a credit system to ensure that soy farmers do not have to foot the bill of moving to sustainable production.

Wakefield explained to Food Navigator why soy production is such a pressing matter:

"It is a very significant commodity in the food supply chain. To put it into context with regard to some other commodity issues, through our foot printing we know that we have about 80,000 tonnes of soy embedded in our supply chain. We use about 6,000 tonnes of palm oil. Couple that with the fact that it takes more land to grow a tonne of soy than it does palm oil, you start to understand why this is a big issue."