The soybean is far more than just a versatile crop whose derivatives serve the protein needs of a meatless diet. One of the world’s most important commodities, soy represents the embodiment of mechanised industrial agriculture and is one of the main actors behind the socioeconomic, political, and ecological transformations of industrial farming in several world regions. Snowballing soybean expansion has mobilised different social actors, with scientific research and the free market playing a decisive role in the grain’s nutritional and industrial ubiquity. Extending this argument, we could say that we live in a world dependent not only on fossil fuels but also on soy. At the core of this dependency lies the combination of the market and scientific research that has allowed soy to increase productivity, adapt to less fertile soils and be used in a wide range of products: from oils and animal feed to mattresses and cars. Soybeans have been adapted to areas previously unthinkable, such as the cold regions of Russia and Great Britain and the North American state of North Dakota. The advances obtained by this combination of scientific research and market might in future mitigate the effects of harmful activities linked to soy. For example, it could potentially increase its contribution to global protein demand, balancing the impacts of the global livestock industry.