ORIGINAL PAPER Crops that feed the World 2. Soybean—worldwide production, use, and constraints caused by pathogens and pests Glen L. Hartman & Ellen D. West & Theresa K. Herman Received: 15 November 2010 / Accepted: 27 December 2010 / Published online: 27 January 2011 # U.S. Government 2011 Abstract The soybean crop is one of the most important crops worldwide. Soybean seeds are important for both protein meal and vegetable oil. The crop is grown on an estimated 6% of the world’ s arable land, and since the 1970s, the area in soybean production has the highest percentage increase compared to any other major crop. Recent increases in production coincide with increases in demand for meal and oil. Soybean production was 17 million metric tons (MMT) in 1960 and increased to 230 MMT in 2008. Future soybean production is expected to increase more than other crops, due to expanded production area and higher yields. There are a number of important abiotic and biotic constraints that threaten soybean produc- tion by directly reducing seed yields and/or seed quality. Abiotic constraints include extremes in nutrients, temper- atures and moisture. These may reduce production directly, but also indirectly through increases in pathogens and pests. Biotic constraints tend to be geographically and environ- mentally restricted. Some diseases like soybean rust may be explosive by producing copious amounts of air-borne spores. This disease, more so than most, caused great concern when first found invading soybean production areas in Brazil and the United States of America. In contrast, red leaf blotch is a disease restricted to a few countries in Africa, but deserving attention since it has not been intensely studied and adequate management strategies, such as the use of resistant varieties, are not available. Significant losses in soybean yield beyond current levels may have implications for food security because of our dependence on the soybean crop, directly and indirectly for food products. In addition, because the crop is highly nutritious and versatile it offers resources to address world food issues through current and future utilization practices. Future soybean production is expected to increase in proportion to increased demand, and with application of newer genomic technologies, the crop has enormous potential to improve dietary quality for people throughout the world whether consumed as a vegetable crop or processed into various soybean food products. Keywords Soybean . Soybean production . Abiotic and biotic constraints Introduction The soybean story is a long and interesting one that is full of dualities: Eastern Hemisphere (origin of soybean) and Western Hemisphere (introduced crop), industrial scale and small-scale production, pesticides and organic production, oil and protein, exports and imports, industrial products and consumables, biofuels and food uses, animal feed and human food, whole beans and processed products, tradi- tional and modern foods, and whole food nutrition and isolated botanical nutraceuticals. Soybean has risen to one of the top-traded commodities, with a multitude of uses. This paper highlights the value of the soybean crop to world food security by first reviewing its history, current worldwide production, the many uses of the crop, and then reviewing, by example, the threats posed to the crop by G. L. Hartman (*) USDA-Agricultural Research Service, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA e-mail: ghartman@illinois.edu G. L. Hartman : E. D. West : T. K. Herman National Soybean Research Center, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA Food Sec. (2011) 3:5–17 DOI 10.1007/s12571-010-0108-x