This summer, soybeans are flourishing on approximately 10.3 million acres of Illinois farmland. By next summer, many of these same beans will find themselves in some pretty unlikely places — on the back of commercial carpet; in home insulation foam; on somebody’s face; even in a pot of boiling water, bubbling alongside some peas or green beans.

That’s because the soybean itself, although humble in appearance, boasts impressive potential, according to John Campen, new uses manager for the United Soybean Board (USB), which partners with automotive, lubricant, ink, and agriculture companies nationwide on soybean research and development projects. “There are infinite things that can be done with soybeans, soybean oil, and soybean protein,” Campen says. “ We’ve just scratched the surface.”

Under its shell lies the secret to this tough, half-inch, greenish-colored soybean’s characterization as “the miracle plant.” The bean’s dry solid center provides a host of edible products, such as soy flour, soy fiber, bran, and grits — all used in the commercial baking industry. Soybean oil finds its way into products including margarine, salad, and cooking oils. Lecithin, which is extracted from soybean oil, is a natural emulsifier and lubricant. Its range extends from the industrial side, where it’s used as a pigment dispersant in paints and plastics, and a softening agent for leather and textiles, to the edible food arena, where it keeps the chocolate and cocoa butter in a candy bar from separating. Combined, soybeans already are used in more than 350 commercial products.

Factor in that soybeans are the single highest natural source of dietary fiber, providing eight essential amino acids necessary for human nutrition that are not produced naturally in the body, and you’ve discovered quite a bean. Until about five years ago, “miracle beans” hovered primarily on the food market’s fringes, showing up in products such as tofu and tempeh. But soybeans secured their spot in the mainstream in 1999, following a claim by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that 25 grams of soy protein daily, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease. More than 300 soy foods were introduced in one year alone, including Archer Daniels Midland’s (ADM’s) Soy 7 pasta, featured in the October/November 2001 issue of Decatur Magazine.

The majority of ADM’s locally processed soybean oil is currently used for edible purposes. However, sources statewide concur the industrial sector represents this commodity’s newest and most innovative potential market. Since debuting twenty-plus years ago in printing ink, soybean oils have proven to be excellent performers, representing abundant, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly options to petrochemicals.

These beans also find themselves at the heart of a nationwide trend to “turn back the clock,” says Tom Kurth, president and CEO of Bio-Based Chemical Company in Spring Valley, a north-central Illinois USB partner.

“About one-hundred years ago, someone stepped in a puddle in Texas, and it turned out to be oil,” says Kurth. “ In the early 1900s, scientists started taking extractions from oil, and kerosene was born. Next came gasoline, lubricants, plastics — all made from oil. Prior to that time, these products had been made from natural compounds. “Now, it’s coming back full circle with a push to make products from renewable resources. There are plenty of new market uses for all commodities.”

At Decatur-based ADM, soy oil customers include major ink, paint, and resin companies. For Kurth’s company, the buzzword is polyol — a recently discovered soybean oil formulation with potential to replace the petroleum oil in polyeurethene.

And there’s still a healthy appetite for soybeans in the food sector, too, says Todd Statzer, owner of Green Shadows Farm in Mount Zion. Statzer believes his you-pick, ready-to-eat soybean crop will yield futures in both nutrition and tourism.

Fuel And Foam
One of the top three soybean crushers worldwide, ADM’s local soybean processing facilities are among thenation’s largest. Here, every part of the “miracle bean” is processed: The hull, or shell, becomes edible fiber used in animal feed; oil is extracted for pharmaceutical, industrial, and dietary products; and flakes, which are left behind after the oil is extracted, are ground into soy grits and flours or high protein animal feed.

Although its soybean oil currently is used in an extensive range of industrial products, ADM also partners with the USB to explore new applications. According to Campen, lubricants currently are a particular area of focus.

The company also sells soybean oil to companies that blend and process biodiesel fuel, and this niche represents a potentially high volume market for ADM.

Classified as a clean burning alternative fuel produced from domestic, renewable resources, the soy oil derivative used in biodiesel contains no petroleum. It can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend; however, fuel companies in the United States generally use blends up to 20 percent biodiesel, combined with 80 percent petroleum diesel.

Proponents tout its benefits: Biodiesel has lower emissions compared to petroleum; it is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar; and, since it is made with renewable, domestic resources, it could decrease our country’s dependence on foreign oil and support the economy. Primary market segments include fleets, mass transit, passenger cars and trucks, school buses, and farm vehicles.

ADM is the single largest biodiesel producer in Europe, where tax incentives are in place to promote its use. “Europe uses about 245 million gallons, or 2 billion pounds, of rapeseedoil a year for biodiesel, and Germany alone has replaced nearly three percent of diesel,” says ADM Vice President of North American Oilseed Processing Mike Livergood. “By comparison, the biodiesel industry in the United States is infinitesimal. But if legislation passes this summer, the industry could take off within a year.”

In 2000, biodiesel usage in the U.S. totaled about seven million gallons — a total projected to rise to about 20-25 million gallons for 2004. The biodiesel market could increase to 85 to 110 million gallons by 2008.

Subsidy programs and tax incentives for biodiesel producers would positively impact these totals. Without such legislative boosts, Livergood cautions, the cost of producing biodiesel will continue to make it uncompetitive — particularly with recent soybean oil prices topping 35 cents a pound.

While companies such as ADM prime themselves for explosive markets, smaller USB partners assume a pioneering role. Bio-Based Chemical, which recently “ discovered” polyol, is one example. “We’re able to make polyeurethene with it, which means polyol could be used for everything from steering wheels, shoe soles, and dashboards to pillows or any type of cushioned furniture,” says Kurth, who predicts this soybean oil will be part of everyone’s life within five years. “Polyeurethene is inert to humans, so it’s even used for prosthetic devices and heart valves.”

To date, polyol’s biggest break has been in the construction industry, where recent applications include backing for commercial carpet and home insulation.

“Rather than sheets of fiberglass insulation, Bio-Based Chemical developed a soy polyol product that is sprayed on bare walls between two-by-fours and expands to insulate the home,” explains Campen. “Its insulating value compares favorably with fiberglass from a cost and performance standpoint.”Polyol’s potential is huge, says Kurth, but getting from “here to there” requires several years of testing and re-formulating before facing the biggest hurdle — market acceptance.

“When we first tested soy polyol cushions, ten percent of our market found the smell offensive and that’s enough to kill a product,” Kurth reports. “ No one wants to sit on a piece of furniture that smells like your kid left some McDonalds french fries there.”Kurth’s company has since successfully formulated a clear, odorless oil, a breakthrough he predicts will result in widespread use of soy polyol for mattresses, pillows, and furniture cushions.

“When we’re able to do the same thing with soybean oil that the petroleum industry does — break soy oil down to its finest components, and then bring the pieces back in order to do certain things for certain products — any product currently made with petroleum could be made with soy,” Campen says.

You Pick; You Eat
Todd Statzer also counts himself among the state’s soy pioneers. Last summer, representatives from the University of Illinois and the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked the Green Shadows Farm owner if he’d consider planting an experimental plot of vegetable soybeans to determine if they could be successfully grown and, if so, whether a market existed.Statzer replied with a resounding, “ yes” — and so did Central Illinois consumers.

This season, the Mount Zion farmer, who also teaches agriculture courses at Richland Community College, planted 13 varieties of a soybean that crosses U.S. and Asian blends. The result will be insect and disease-resistant beans that are twice the size of the “common” Illinois soybean; offer a mild, nutty flavor; and can be picked from mid-July through September. (Call Green Shadows Farm at 217-864-3739 for directions and hours of operation.)

“Last year’s response was unbelievable,” says Statzer, referring to customers who gobbled the “boiling beans” at downtown Decatur’s Farmers Market. The mature, dried soybean isprepared similar to green beans or peas, with the bean removed from the pod, presoaked and boiled for about 40 minutes. Immature soybeans can be eaten pod and all, with only several minutes of boiling time. Statzer eats vegetable soybeans as finger food, adds them to cole slaw, salads, and fried rice, and even substitutes soybeans in ham or chicken salads. Price-wise, they’re comparable to peanuts or snow peas.

Statzer, along with members of the recently formed Central Illinois Farm Fresh Network, also believes “if you grow it, they will come.” Nationwide, states are developing agri-tourism niches by linking their traditional crops and vacation destinations.

And for Illinois farmers, beans may fit the bill. “Increasingly, consumers are seeking that ‘fresher’ product, and you-pick farms are catching on,” Statzer says. “The Network’s goal is to link producers and consumers, and to show farmers how to put a small acreage into a crop that will attract consumers.

“Ag-tourism is a win-win opportunity for the public and farmers. Money stays in the community, because we re-invest it in our specialty crops.”Today, one acre of Green Shadows Farm’s ground suffices for local vegetable soybean demand. But tomorrow could tell another story.

“There are huge markets for edible soybeans in Asia and Japan,” Statzer says. “They plant thousands of acres, which would completely saturate the U.S. market.

“But what happens here in the next five to ten years completely depends on the market. Products that are good ideas, exist for good reasons, and are good for us, are the ones we’ll still use thirty years later. As knowledge builds, the market builds.

“Sometimes you just have to jump out of the box.”

Jan Mathew is Contributing Editor of Decatur Magazine.

Where’s the Bean?
Everywhere.

Soybeans currently are used in more than 350 commercial products, including the following:

Oil Products

Refined Soyoil/Edible Uses:
Coffee Creamer
Cooking Oil
Margarine
Mayonnaise
Pharmaceuticals
Salad Dressings and Oils
Sandwich Spreads
Shortening

Refined Soyoil/Industrial Uses:
Calking Compounds
Diesel Fuel
Disinfectants
Dust Control Agents
Electrical Insulation
Fungicides
Linoleum Backing
Paints
Pesticides
Putty
Varnishes
Waterproof Cement

Soybean Lecithin

Edible Uses: Bakery products,
candy/chocolate coatings, pharmaceuticals
Nutritional Uses: Dietary, medical
Industrial Uses: Anti-Foam agent for alcohol and yeast; anti-spattering agent for margarine; dispensing agent for paint, inks,
insecticides, rubber; stabilizing agent for shortening; wetting agent for calf milk replacers, cosmetics.

Whole Soybean Products

Edible Uses:
Soy Sprouts
Baked Soybeans
Bread
Candy
Doughnut Mix
Frozen Dessert
Pancake Flour
Pie Crust

Roasted Soybeans
Candles/Confections
Crackers
Soynut Butter
Soy Coffee

Traditional Soyfoods
Miso
Soymilk
Soy Sauce
Tofu
Tempeh

(Source Credit: American Soybean Association)