Soybean Facts

• The soybean, also known as the soya bean, is a legume native to East Asia.
• An ancient Chinese legend says that the wild soybean’s nutritious properties  were  first discovered by a band of traveling merchants about 5,000 years ago.
• Around 2838 BC it was recorded that the soybean was valued in China for its medicinal properties.
• Soybeans were first cultivated in northern China and from there it spread into Japan, Korea and the rest of SE Asia.
• Soybeans were first brought to America in the early 19^th century.
• Today the U.S. grows about 70 million acres of soybeans annually.
• Soybean production got a huge boost in the U.S. when George Washington Carver’s research at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama showed it to be good for the nutrient depleted soils  of  the South.  He developed more than 300 uses for the soybean, including edible oil and meal.
• Some of the better known soybean products include soy meal, soy flour, soy milk, tofu, meat substitutes, tempeh, soy sauce, soy cheese, soy cream cheese, infant formula, biodiesel fuel, animal feed, etc.
• The FDA approves soy as an official cholesterol-lowering food.

Following are sources of most of this information.

• http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/soybean-history.html
• http://www.ncsoy.org/ABOUT-SOYBEANS/History-of-Soybeans.aspx
• http://www.ilsoy.org/_dl/Kids/Sixth_Grade_History_as_a_Glance2.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean
• http://www.ilsoy.org/soybean-uses/new-uses/
• http://www.soynewuses.org/