At the beginning of the twentieth century, soybeans were largely unknown in the United States. Then an American named William Joseph Morse spent several years in the Orient picking out the best seeds and bringing them back to this country. In 1919 Morse established the The American Soybean Association to spread the word of the “Gold from the Soil.” In 1929 American farmers grew nine million bushels of soybeans. By 1939 that figure was up to ninety-one million bushels. In 2021, the total was 4.4 billion bushels! In addition, the 1919 soybean farmer was lucky to have harvested ten bushels per acre, while today yields have increased five-fold.
Legend has it that the food value of soybeans was first discovered “long, long ago, far back in the dim past” by a caravan of Chinese merchants returning home after a successful trading expedition to the west, their camels laden with gold, silver and other valuables gained in trade. Upon being attacked by a large gang of bandits, members of the caravan took shelter in a rocky outcropping where they were able to hold the bad guys at bay, but being surrounded they soon ran out of provisions and were in danger of starvation. Finally, a servant noticed a lot of unfamiliar plants growing in the rocky soil that contained a sort of bean. The desperate men gathered the beans, pounded them into a meal which was formed into cakes with water and baked on hot rocks. Thus sustained, they were able to hold out until help arrived and the bandits were driven off. [Soybeans, Gold from the Soil, by Edward Dies].
Henry Ford was a complex, and sometimes very strange man. He seems to have developed an intense dislike of horses and cows during his time on the farm in his boyhood and younger years. His Model T Ford automobile and Fordson tractor were meant to replace the horse which, as he once said was a “twelve-hundred-pound ‘hay motor’ of one horse power.”
Charlie Sorensen, who started working for Ford as a $3 a week pattern maker in 1905 and rose to be the second most powerful man in the Ford Company by the time of his retirement in 1944 wrote of his boss, “He was always complaining about his stomach and was forever trying different diets–nuts, raw vegetables, and milk from soybeans.”
Another account tells us that Ford would wander around the office or factory and sometimes pull a couple of raw carrots out of his pocket, offering one to whomever he was talking to. One of Henry’s favorite foods was buckwheat cakes, and he seems to have drank only water at room temperature.
In 1919 Mr. Ford said, “The world would be better off without meat. It’s 75 percent ashes, anyway. Milk can be manufactured chemically. Every animal used on the farm these days is a waste of time.” Then, in a 1921 interview with Wilbur Forrest of the New York Tribune, Ford said: “It’s a simple matter to take the cereals that the cow eats and make them into a milk which is superior to the natural article and much cleaner. The cow is the crudest machine in the world. Our laboratories have already demonstrated that cow’s milk can be done away with and the concentration of the elements of milk can be manufactured into scientific food by machines far cleaner than cows and not subject to tuberculosis.”
The August, 1921 issue of Farm Mechanics magazine reacted to this statement by Ford with the above cartoon.
Ford had a special affinity for soybeans and experimented endlessly with soy products. In 1928 he established a chemical laboratory where much time was spent experimenting with products made of soybeans. In 1932 he raised some 8,000 acres of soybeans at his Michigan farms and announced that Ford cars would be painted with enamel made with oil from the beans. Ford often wore suits made from soy-based cloth, and dash knobs and steering wheels for Ford cars were molded from soybean mash. In 1940, Henry had his personal car fitted with a trunk lid made of soy-based plastic and a famous photo shows him attacking, with no apparent damage, the trunk with an ax. Just prior to World War II, Ford announced, with much fanfare, a small car prototype built with a tubular frame and all-plastic body, but the war stopped further development.
At the 1933-’34 Century of Progress show in Chicago, the Ford Motor Company had an extensive exhibit. On August 17th, 1934, Mr. Ford sponsored a special luncheon for reporters at the exhibit, with the full menu consisting of the following items.:
Tomato Juice Seasoned with Soy Bean Sauce
Salted Soy Beans Celery Stuffed with Soy Bean Cheese
Puree of Soybean Soy Bean Crackers
Soy Bean Croquettes with Tomato Sauce
Buttered Green Soy Beans
Pineapple Ring with Soy Bean Cheese and Soy Bean Dressing
Soy Bean Bread with Soy Bean Relish
Soy Bean Biscuit with Soy Bean Butter
Apple Pie (Soy Bean Crust)
Cocoa with Soy Bean Milk Soy Bean Coffee
Assorted Soy Bean Cookies Soy Bean Cakes
Assorted Soy Bean Candy
Henry may have been right; if one looks through the dairy case at the local super market today, one can find so-called “milk” made from just about everything — but milk!
Personally, I’ll take the real thing.
Sam Moore
