Exploring the interconnected sustainability challenges of soy production
Since the 1970s, large-scale soy cultivation in Brazil and soy-based intensive animal farming in the Netherlands have driven significant sustainability challenges. These include large-scale deforestation, land grabbing, and child labour in Brazil, as well as a long-term nitrogen crisis, public health issues, and animal suffering in the Netherlands. Despite these shared impacts, there is little understanding of how these challenges are interconnected through soy. Efforts to address these issues have largely focused on either Brazil or the Netherlands, with limited success. Moreover, the absence of historical accounts that reflect diverse stakeholder perspectives, including those marginalized in previous research, restricts our ability to imagine inclusive, sustainable futures.

SOY STORIES aims to:

1. Enrich the history of sustainability by exploring how different sustainability problems are linked, focusing on the challenges surrounding soy production and consumption in Brazil and the Netherlands.
2. Make historical research actionable by using this knowledge to inform a more inclusive vision of sustainability for both regions.

A Collaboration Between Brazil and the Netherlands
To explore the connected histories of soy, we combine oral history with archival research. This approach allows us to engage with a diversity of perspectives often overlooked in traditional historical accounts. By integrating creative methods, we will elicit historical knowledge beyond the written and spoken word, ensuring a more nuanced understanding of soy’s impacts.

We apply transdisciplinary research methods commonly used at the Athena Institute, and examine how historical insights can further develop these methods to contribute to shaping inclusive, sustainable futures. This combination of historical and innovative methods is central to the project’s goal of reimagining sustainability pasts and futures in both Brazil and the Netherlands.