Prof. Sun Jing and his team at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of CAAS recently published a paper titled "Importing food damages domestic environment: evidence from global soybean trade" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Contrary to conventional wisdom that importing countries benefit from international food trade at the environmental cost of the exporting countries, the paper revealed a major environmental problem regarding soybean trade in the importing countries. Results suggested a need to re-evaluate environmental consequences of international trade of all major goods in all importing countries. China, for example, is the largest soybean importing country and has significant implications for the fundamental rethinking in global policy-making and debates on the environmental responsibilities among consumers, producers and traders across the world.

International soybean trade (A) and meta-analysis on per hectare N balance of soybeans and four major crops (wheat, corn, rice, and vegetables) converted from soybeans (B and C)