DescriptionThe following chapters use soy as a lens through which to analyze the current status of agricultural systems in the United States and India and the subsequent effects on women in the field. The fact that this foreign crop (in both countries) has become a principle component in international agriculture and trade highlights the ways in which food processes throughout the world have shifted. It also demonstrates women’s changing responsibilities. Notably, India’s shift in focus to agricultural industrial processing, exportation, and casual labor has undermined women’s more traditional roles as cultivators. Combined with alarming nutrition and hunger statistics for women in the regions that grow the most soy, the consequences of the crop’s cultivation in India go far beyond economics. In the United States, the effects of soy are not as easily investigated. Soy serves as more of a representation of what industrialized agriculture can become and the unique part the United States plays in international food production. Women’s roles in crop cultivation differ in the United States and in India. As such, the consequences of soy will inevitably develop in different ways.