Soybean History

The first written record of soybean cultivation is from China in 2838 B.C. The Chinese farmers who grew this legume fed it to their families as well as to their livestock. From China, cultivation of soybeans spread into Japan, Korea, and throughout Southeast Asia. Soybeans were introduced in Europe in 1712.

Soybeans arrived in America in the early 1800’s. The soybeans had been used as ballast for a clipper ship from China and were unloaded to make room for cargo on the ship’s next trip. Regarded as curiosities, a few farmers planted the beans. By the turn of the century, many American farmers were growing the crop for feed. It has also been said that the first soybeans grown in the United States were grown in Pennsylvania as a garden plant.

In 1829, U.S. farmers began growing soybeans as a crop and by 1898, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had begun bringing in new varieties of soybeans from Asia. In 1904, George Washington Carver discovered that soybeans were a source of protein and oil. Combines were first used to harvest soybeans in the early 1920’s. In 1922, the first soybean processing plant in the United States opened. Soybean pioneer William J. Morse spent 2 years in China in the late 1920’s, gathering more than 10,000 soybean varieties for United States’ researchers to study.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg developed meat substitutes from soybeans and soy milk for American consumers in the 1920’s.

However, soybean farming in the United States didn’t really take hold until soybean fields in China were devastated by World War II and an internal revolution in China in the 1940’s.

Henry Ford developed a soybean plastic in the 1940’s. The boom in the use of soybean meal for livestock feed began in the 1950’s. Today, poultry and swine feed accounts for about 75% of all U.S. domestic soybean meal consumption each year.

Today, more soybeans are grown in the United States that anywhere else in the world – nearly 2 1/2 billion bushels each year. Soybeans are grown in more than 29 states.

Soybeans can be found in a wide variety of products, ranging from tofu, soy milk and soy sauce to plywood, particle board, printing inks, soap, candy products, cosmetics, and antibiotics.