The Soybean in Global Perspective, 1900

The Soybean in Global Perspective, 1900–1950

In 1918, the USDA started a campaign to promote cooking with soy among American housewives due to wartime shortages. At that time, most soybeans were still imported from Manchuria.

In this research project, I am analyzing the worldwide economic importance and cultural perception of soybeans in the first half of the twentieth century. In the Western world, the high commercial significance that soybeans attained was accompanied by little cultural acceptance. Exploring the reasons behind this social indifference is particularly challenging, however, because indifference often express itself in silence, and it is difficult to document what was left unsaid.

While soybeans have been used as a healthy food in Asia for several thousand years, their large-scale diffusion in Europe and America dates back only a century. The Western interest in soy was not the result of its nutritional value but rather its high oil content, because the oil could be manufactured into soap, margarine, waterproofed clothing, plastic, lubricant, paint, rubber, and even explosives. Furthermore, bean cake, a byproduct of the oil, proved to be an outstanding animal fodder. Due to its manifold uses soy gained a strong economic position in the world market during the First World War with northeast China (Manchuria), Japan, Europe, and the United States as its centers.

In the United States, soybeans became a commercial crop in a period of unusual and rapidly changing conditions. Following a period of decline in American agriculture during the 1920s, the cultivation of the plant, motivated by the political and economic concerns of the New Deal, finally led to prosperity and wealth. By the end of the Second World War, soybeans grown by American farmers served more than two thirds of the world's demand. Surpassing cotton, soy became the United States' most important cash crop. However, the plant remained invisible and unappealing to the general public; it never became an integral part of western society and identity. My project will investigate soy trade patterns and the cultural meanings bound up with the crop in the Western world.