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DANVILLE, Ind. — The history of soybeans in the United States can be traced back to 1765, when the first soybean seed was planted in North America. Soybeans had humble beginnings, but have...
This handy timeline traces the history of U.S. Soy. Please click HERE to download the high resolution PDF for this image.
The earliest known references to soyfoods in America were by Samuel Bowen. He brought soybeans to Georgia, where they were first planted in 1765. In 1766 he received a present of 200 guineas from King George III of England for soy sauce he had developed.
The soybean originated in China, but its history in the U.S. has ranged from an experimental crop to a Civil War coffee substitute, to a leading U.S. export.
Prior to World War II, the United States imported 40 percent of its edible fats and oil. At the start of the war, this oil supply was cut. Processors in the U.S. turned to soybean oil for their supply. By 1940, the U.S. soybean crop had grown to 78 mil-lion bushels harvested on 5 million acres.
An ancient crop, the soybean has been used in China, Japan, and Korea for thousands of years as a food and a component of medicines. Soybeans were introduced into the United States in 1804 and became particularly important in the South and Midwest in the mid-20th century. Brazil and Argentina are also major producers.
In 1851 the soybean was introduced to Illinois (via California), and thence to the rest of the Corn Belt by Benjamin Franklin Edwards (Hymowitz 1987). By the year 1889 there were only a small number of soybean varieties in North America and none of them had names.
Following the Second World War, the United States experienced a period of increasing prosperity. Demand for meat consumption increased as people’s diets improved. Livestock producers found that soybean meal was the preferred source of protein at an affordable cost.
The soybean dates back 5,000 years ago to China, where the crop was cultivated from its wild state into a food crop. In the early 1800s soybeans made their debut in America, arriving as ballast aboard a clipper ship from China.
The story of the soybean in the United States is one of multiple attempts to make a plant profitable through the application of science and persuasion by scientists, government bureaucrats, the usda, producer groups, corporations, and other interested parties.