The soybean

This is an outstanding example of an ages-old crop that, because of the development of new processes to make its oil and meal more useful, is widely produced today. In the East, where the soybean originated long ago, more than half the crop is used directly for food, and less than a third is pressed for oil. Its high protein and fat content make it a staple in the diet, replacing or supplementing meat for millions of people.

Though first reported grown in America in 1804, the soybean remained a rare garden plant for nearly 100 years. Around the beginning of the 20th century, when three new varieties were introduced from Japan, U.S. farmers began growing it for hay, pasture, and green manure. In the early 1930s a soybean oil processing method that eliminated a disagreeable odour from the finished product was developed. World War II brought an increased demand for edible oil. The food industry began using soybean oil for margarine, shortening, salad oil, mayonnaise, and other food products and continues to be its chief user. Manufacturers of paints, varnishes, and other drying oil products are the most important nonfood users.

Development of the solvent process of extracting soybean oil has greatly increased the yield. A 60-pound bushel of soybeans processed by this method yields 10 1/2 pounds of oil and 45 pounds of meal. Soybean meal and cake are used chiefly for livestock feed in the United States. The high protein content of the meal has made it an attractive source of industrial protein, and, with proper processing, it is an excellent source of protein for humans. In 2014 the United States and Brazil were the world’s largest soybean producers.

Development of new soybean varieties suited for different parts of the world is possible by means of hybridization and genetic modification. Hybridization permits isolating types that are superior in yielding ability, resistance to lodging (breakage of the plant by wind and rain) and shattering (of the bean), adaptation to suit various requirements for maturity, and resistance to disease. Genetically modified soybeans are engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, a herbicide, and are among the most widely cultivated genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Sorghum

Just as the soybean was used for many centuries in Asia before its introduction into the Western world, so sorghum was a major crop in Africa. Sorghum is fifth in importance among the world’s cereals, coming after wheat, rice, corn, and barley. It is called by a variety of names including Guinea corn in West Africa, kafir corn in South Africa, durra in Sudan and South Sudan, and mtama in East Africa. In India it is known as jowar, cholam, and great millet, and it is called gaoliang in China. In the United States it is often called milo, while the sweet-stemmed varieties are referred to as sweet sorghum or sorgo.

Sorghum probably was domesticated in Ethiopia about 3,000 years ago. From there it spread to West and East Africa and then southward. Traders from Africa to the East carried sorghum as provisions on their dhows. It is likely that sorghum thus reached India, where cultivation began between 1,500 and 1,000 years ago. Other traders carried sorghum to China and the other countries of East Asia. The amber sorghums, or sorgos, useful for forage and syrup, may have moved by sea while the grain sorghums probably moved overland. The movement to the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia also began through traders.

Sorghum reached the Americas through the slave trade. Guinea corn and chicken corn came from West Africa to America as provisions for the slaves. Other types were introduced into the United States by seedsmen and scientists from about 1870 to 1910. Seed was sometimes sold to farmers as a highly productive new variety of corn. It was not until the 1930s, after the value of the plant as grain, forage, and silage for livestock feeding had been recognized, that acreage began to increase. Yields rose markedly in the late 1950s, after successful hybridization of the crop. Better yields led in turn to increased acreage.

Chinese ambercane was brought from France to the United States in 1854 and was distributed to farmers. While the cane provided good forage for livestock, promoters of the new crop were most interested in refining sugar from the sorghum molasses, a goal that persisted for many years. While refining technology has been perfected, the present cost of sorghum sugar does not permit it to compete with sugar from other sources.

Large amounts of sorghum grain are eaten every year by people of many countries. If the world population continues to grow as projected, food is likely to be sorghum’s most important use. Most of the sorghum is ground into flour, often at home. Some is consumed as a whole-kernel food. Some of the grain is used for brewing beer, particularly in Africa.

The sugar beet

The sugar beet as a crop is much newer than either soybeans or sorghum. Although beets had been a source of sweets among ancient Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans, it was not until 1747 that a German apothecary, Andreas Marggraf, obtained sugar crystals from the beet. Some 50 years later Franz Karl Achard, son of a French refugee in Prussia and student of Marggraf, improved the Silesian stock beet—probably a mangel-wurzel—as a source of sugar. He erected the first pilot beet-sugar factory at Cunern, Silesia (now in Poland), in 1802. Thus began the new use for sugar of a crop traditionally used as animal feed.

When during the Napoleonic Wars continental Europe was cut off from West Indies cane sugar, further experimentation with beet sugar was stimulated. In 1808 a French scientist, Benjamin Delessert, used charcoal in clarification, which insured the technical success of beet sugar. On March 25, 1811, Napoleon issued a decree that set aside 80,000 acres (about 32,375 hectares) of land for the production of beets, established six special sugar-beet schools to which 100 select students were given scholarships, directed construction of 10 new factories, and appropriated substantial bounties to encourage the peasants to grow beets. By 1814, 40 small factories were in operation in France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. Although the industry declined sharply after Napoleon’s defeat, it was soon revived. For the last third of the 19th century, beets replaced cane as the leading source of sugar.

Since World War II, major changes have taken place in sugar-beet production in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in Germany and other countries with a substantial production. These changes may be illustrated by developments in the United States.

In 1931 the California Agricultural Experiment Station and the U.S. Department of Agriculture undertook a cooperative study of the mechanization of sugar-beet growing and harvesting. The goal in harvesting was a combine that would perform all the harvesting operations—lifting from the soil, cutting the tops, and loading—in one trip down the row. By the end of World War II, four different types of harvesters were being manufactured.

The spring and summer operations—planting, blocking (cutting out all plants except for clumps standing 10 or 12 inches [25 or 30 centimeters] apart), thinning, and weeding—did not yield so easily to mechanization, largely because the beet seed, a multigerm seedball, produced several seedlings, resulting in dense, clumpy, and somewhat irregular stands. In 1941 a machine for segmenting the seedball was developed. The problem was solved in 1948, when a plant with a true single-germ seed was discovered in Oregon. Now precision seed drills could be used, and plants could be first blocked and then cultivated mechanically using a cross-cultivating technique—i.e., cultivating the rows up and down and then across the field. During World War I, 11.2 hours of labor were required to produce a ton of sugar beets; in 1964, 2.7 hours were needed.