Soybean oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the soybean. It is one of the most widely consumed cooking oils. As a drying oil, processed soybean oil is also used as a base for printing inks and oil paints.

Liquid soybean oil is low in saturated fat, contains no trans fat, and is high in poly- and monounsaturated fats. It's also the principal source of omega-3 fatty acids and the primary commercial source of vitamin E in the U.S. diet.

Soybean oil is a popular oil for cooking because it is so versatile and it has a bland flavor that will not interfere with cooking or baking.

Large-scale production of soybeans did not begin until the 20th century in the United States, but area planted to soybeans has expanded rapidly. Soybeans are the second-most-planted field crop in the United States after corn, with 77.5 million acres planted in 2009.

Increased planting flexibility, steadily rising yield improvements from narrow-rowed seeding practices, a greater number of 50-50 corn-soybean rotations, and low production costs (partly due to widespread adoption of herbicide-tolerant varieties) favored expansion of soybean acreage.

More than 80 percent of U.S. soybean acreage is concentrated in the upper Midwest, although significant amounts are still planted in the historically important areas of the Delta and Southeast.

Acreage tends to be concentrated where soybean yields are highest. Harvested acreage for soybeans in the U.S. more than tripled between 1940 and 1955, from 4.8 million acres to 18.6 million, while total production of soybeans increased nearly five-fold, from 78 million bushels to 374 million.

During the 2010-11 marketing year a record-breaking 1.50 billion bushels of whole soybeans were exported in the United States. Including exports of soybean meal and soybean oil, the U.S. exported approximately 56% of total U.S. soybean production. U.S. exports set a record for the forth year in a row in 2010-2011 with the amount of soy, soybean meal and soybean oil worth over $25.58 billion. China accounted for more exports from the U.S. than the others in the top 10 combined -China imported  27% of the total U.S. soybean crop in 2010-2011.