Soy Beans Garden Nursery Landscaping Guide
Soy Beans In Your Food Products
By Rodger G Allenby
Soy beans are a legume, rich in protein, carbohydrates, and oil.
When you are food shopping and review the ingredients on many
food products, you may notice soy is added, included as the main
ingredient in many products and as a substitute for meat and dairy
ingredients.
Soy protein is very heat resistant. This is why soybeans are
processed into three different categories of products. There is
soy flour, soy concentrate, and soy isolate. It can be included
in tofu, fermented into a sauce, ground into flour, or pressed
for its oil. The soybean seed is one of the more popular crops
worldwide.
Back in 1710, Benjamin Franklin spoke of sending soybeans home
during his visit to England, where the plant was recently introduced
from the east. Decades later, just prior to devoting his attention
to the cultivation of peanuts, George Washington Carver, undertook
the first comprehensive research on soybean cultivation in the
U.S.
Henry Ford Spent A Million On Researching Soy Beans
For the most part soybeans remained exclusively in light-industrial
use up to ten years after World War I and the Great Depression.
Henry Ford in 1932, spent over one million U.S. dollars on researching
soybeans.
Ford was the largest promoter of soybean seeds. He promoted many
industrial and culinary uses for soybeans, including polymers
for paints, fire-extinguishing foam, and materials used in the
production of Ford cars, where a fiber was converted into a textile
(Henry Ford had a suit made entirely of soy), soy milk, non-dairy
whipped topping, and ice cream.
A Source For Dietary Protein
Soy beans were a viable substitute for other sources of dietary
protein during WWII. After little more than a decade, the U.S.
exported more than 90% of world soy protein.
These days, the majority of soy is still cultivated for the production
of textured protein, soy oil and soy meal is used as feed for
farm animals including cattle, poultry, pork and other commercially
raised animals.
Origins In Asia
Soybean meal is produced as a byproduct of soybean oil production.
It is used as a source in agriculture and has revolutionized the
raising and feeding of livestock.
Although there are many regions around the world where soy beans
are grown, they originated in Asia. About 45% of soybeans world
production are grown in India, China and Japan.
Genetically Modified Soy Beans In Food Products
The remaining 55% is produced primarily in the United States,
with the rest of the crop is produced in Argentina and Brazil.
The average American production is nearly 100 million tonnes of
soybeans annually, and more than one third of this is exported
around the world.
There is some controversy about soy bean production, because
it is one of the main issues in the debate on genetically modified
food and organisms (GMO). About 90% of the soybean crop grown
in the United States is genetically modified.
Food products derived from these seeds, are banned in a number
of European countries. In time, the continued genetic modification
of the soy bean crop is sure to completely abolish the natural
seed, unless action is taken to ban the sale of these food products
with genetically modified soy beans in more countries and then
their production becomes unviable.
About the Author:
Rodger G Allenby has written a number of articles on farming, gardening
and landscaping including
Grass Seed,
Garden Supplies,
Backyard Ideas,
Green Lawn,
Backyard Landscaping Pictures,
Underground Pet Fence,
Backyard Fences,
Purple Martin Houses,
Fish Ponds.
Keep a lookout for more of his articles on this website.
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