Soy produced in the US and China (the major non-former-forest-oriented producers) is pretty environmentally friendly, certainly moreso than any animal protein production. However, as you say, it mostly goes to livestock feed anyway.
2. it is an androgen disrupter. there's a lot of denialism about it from the food industry (soybean oil and soy protein are everywhere in processed foods) and a few very vocal groups, but most normal men would think twice about consuming it if they were told what we currently know about phytoestrogens and their effect.
Phytoestrogens are a fun bogeyman for mostly conservative "macho men". The Harvard School for Public Health has a decent springboard of research to start from: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/soy/
This is, of course, a concern if you're allergic to soy. However, if you avoid everything that anyone's allergic to, you're not going to be eating much. Even avoiding the EU's 14 notifiable allergens, say, would leave you able to eat very little.
> but most normal men would think twice about consuming it if they were told what we currently know about phytoestrogens and their effect.
Does "what we currently know", here, refer to what conspiracy theorists currently know? General consensus is no known effect (from phytoestrogens; some other substances in soy do have known health effects, particularly in terms of drug interactions).
Interestingly, people rarely have the same concern about _cow's milk_, which of course actually does contain mammalian estrogen (there's some evidence that this may be carcinogenic, but I don't think it's particularly strong). One assumes the milk lobby have a bigger advertising budget...
here you go: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2834330/
(and I could find ten more studies like that in 15 minutes if you wish to engage in this argument further)
>The serum levels of sex hormone-binding globulin significantly increased, and the serum levels of free testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) decreased significantly after 3-month supplementation. Among the 10 equol non-producers, equol became detectable in the serum of two healthy volunteers after 3-month supplementation. This study revealed that short-term administration of soy isoflavones stimulated the production of serum equol and decreased the serum DHT level in Japanese healthy volunteers. These results suggest the possibility of converting equol non-producers to producers by prolonged and consistent soy isoflavones consumption.
now feel free to pivot and say that it doesn't matter and/or it is a good thing, "dude".