Invisible Giant: The Global Rise of Soy in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Prior to the twentieth century, the soybean was largely unknown beyond East Asia. Since that time, this inconspicuous legume has catapulted from obscurity to become one of the most widely grown crops in the world and a ubiquitous presence in modern life. This dissertation traces the spread of soybean cultivation around the world and chronicles the dramatic growth of the global soybean industry. Although scholars have analyzed the role of expanded commodity production in the relationship between the industrialization of nature and capitalist development, they have typically presumed an established or clear source of demand for the commodity in question. This dissertation contends that the flourishing of modern chemistry in state and corporate labs enabled scientists to shape agricultural production and invent industrial demand in tandem by adjusting the chemical composition of plants and their resulting raw materials at a molecular level on a mass scale, while also inventing new products to profitably absorb plant-derived raw materials.

Using papers of scientists, government and business records, research memos, newspapers, and technical publications from several scientific disciplines, this dissertation finds that the chemical composition of soybeans made it a uniquely inspirational crop – scientists, industrialists, statesmen, and missionaries hoped to harness its stores of nitrogen, oil, protein, and other desirable elements to solve a variety of problems. Although soy was not naturally suited to many of the possible uses that people hoped for it, imagined possibilities proved critical to the long-term success of soy. Hype attracted investment and spurred research that incrementally altered the chemical makeup of this plant to better suit manufacturers’ specifications, manipulated raw materials it yielded, and created products to absorb those materials. This globalized the soybean not as a source of food, but as a vessel of industrial raw materials and a vehicle for capital accumulation.

The union of chemistry and commerce that drove soy onto new continents and into countless goods was part of a more encompassing phenomenon - a chemical revolution. In this mesolayer between farm fields and factory floors, scientists not only used remade plants and their products – they also interacted with networks of experts in adjacent fields like soil science, animal husbandry, and nutrition, in which experts also sought more precise chemical understanding and control of the world around them. Ultimately, this dissertation shows how the globalization of soy was an exemplar and driver of a chemical revolution that offered firms and government a new suite of tools with which to address a wide range of economic, environmental, and social challenges by reorganizing the building blocks of the natural world.