Monday, October 20, 2008
Soybeans are an important global crop, providing oil and protein. The bulk of the crop is solvent-extracted for vegetable oil and then defatted Soymeal is used for animal feed. A small proportion of the crop is consumed directly by humans. Soybean products do appear in a large variety of processed foods.
Soybeans were a crucial crop in eastern Asia long before written records, and they remain a major crop in China, Japan, and Korea. Prior to fermented products such as Soy sauce, tempeh, natto, and miso, soy was considered sacred for its use in crop rotation as a method of fixing nitrogen. The plants would be plowed under to clear the field for food crops.[citation needed] Soya was first introduced to Europe in the early 1700s and what is now the United States in 1765, where it was first grown for hay. Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter in 1770 mentioning sending soybeans home from England. Soybeans did not become an important crop outside of Asia until about 1910. In America, soy was considered an industrial product only and not utilized as a food prior to the 1920s. Soy was introduced in Africa from China in the late 19th Century and is now widespread across the continent.
Cultivation is successful in climates with hot summers, with optimum growing conditions in mean temperatures of 20 °C to 30 °C (68°F to 86°F); temperatures of below 20 °C and over 40 °C (68 °F, 104 °F) retard growth significantly. They can grow in a wide range of soils, with optimum growth in moist alluvial soils with a good organic content. Soybeans, like most legumes, perform nitrogen fixation by establishing a symbiotic relationship with the bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum (syn. Rhizobium japonicum; Jordan 1982). However, for best results an inoculum of the correct strain of bacteria should be mixed with the Soya bean (or any legume) seed before planting. Modern crop cultivars generally reach a height of around 1 m (3 ft), and take 80–120 days from sowing to harvesting.
Soybeans are native to east Asia but only 45 percent of soybean production is located there. The other 55 percent of production is in the Americas. The U.S. produced 75 million tons of soybeans in 2000, of which more than one-third was exported. Other leading producers are Brazil, Argentina, China, and India.
Environmental groups, such as Greenpeace and the WWF, have reported that both soybean cultivation and the probability of increased soybean cultivation in Brazil, has destroyed huge areas of Amazon rainforest and is encouraging further deforestation. American soil scientist Dr. Andrew McClung, who first showed that the ecologically biodiverse savannah of the Cerrado region of Brazil could grow profitable soybeans, was awarded the 2006 World Food Prize on October 19, 2006.
The first research on soybeans in the United States was conducted by George Washington Carver at Tuskegee, Alabama, but he decided it was too exotic a crop for the poor black farmers of the South so he turned his attention to peanuts.
Soybeans were a crucial crop in eastern Asia long before written records, and they remain a major crop in China, Japan, and Korea. Prior to fermented products such as Soy sauce, tempeh, natto, and miso, soy was considered sacred for its use in crop rotation as a method of fixing nitrogen. The plants would be plowed under to clear the field for food crops.[citation needed] Soya was first introduced to Europe in the early 1700s and what is now the United States in 1765, where it was first grown for hay. Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter in 1770 mentioning sending soybeans home from England. Soybeans did not become an important crop outside of Asia until about 1910. In America, soy was considered an industrial product only and not utilized as a food prior to the 1920s. Soy was introduced in Africa from China in the late 19th Century and is now widespread across the continent.
Cultivation is successful in climates with hot summers, with optimum growing conditions in mean temperatures of 20 °C to 30 °C (68°F to 86°F); temperatures of below 20 °C and over 40 °C (68 °F, 104 °F) retard growth significantly. They can grow in a wide range of soils, with optimum growth in moist alluvial soils with a good organic content. Soybeans, like most legumes, perform nitrogen fixation by establishing a symbiotic relationship with the bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum (syn. Rhizobium japonicum; Jordan 1982). However, for best results an inoculum of the correct strain of bacteria should be mixed with the Soya bean (or any legume) seed before planting. Modern crop cultivars generally reach a height of around 1 m (3 ft), and take 80–120 days from sowing to harvesting.
Soybeans are native to east Asia but only 45 percent of soybean production is located there. The other 55 percent of production is in the Americas. The U.S. produced 75 million tons of soybeans in 2000, of which more than one-third was exported. Other leading producers are Brazil, Argentina, China, and India.
Environmental groups, such as Greenpeace and the WWF, have reported that both soybean cultivation and the probability of increased soybean cultivation in Brazil, has destroyed huge areas of Amazon rainforest and is encouraging further deforestation. American soil scientist Dr. Andrew McClung, who first showed that the ecologically biodiverse savannah of the Cerrado region of Brazil could grow profitable soybeans, was awarded the 2006 World Food Prize on October 19, 2006.
The first research on soybeans in the United States was conducted by George Washington Carver at Tuskegee, Alabama, but he decided it was too exotic a crop for the poor black farmers of the South so he turned his attention to peanuts.