Soy Plays Role In Global Nutrition Efforts

The Food and Agriculture Organization released bleak statistics in June. World hunger is projected to reach a historic high in 2009 with 1.02 billion people going hungry every day. A record one out of six people are hungry as a result of the world economic crisis. Soy has an important role to play in the response.

High-quality protein is often missing from the diets of the world’s hungry children and adults. Realization of this global need prompted U.S. soybean growers to launch the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program and the World Soy Foundation, a 501c3 charitable organization. These initiatives, headquartered at the American Soybean Association in St. Louis, complement the many other initiatives supported by U.S. soybean growers, including their work to increase the availability and quality of soy to meet global demands.

In 2002, 68% of the 75.4 million U.S. soybean acres were planted with transgenic soybean varieties compared with 92% of the 75.7 million soybean acres planted in 2008. Higher yielding and more nutritious crops developed through agricultural biotechnology can contribute toward meeting the United Nation's estimated need for a 50% increase in world food production by 2030.

Important Protein Source

Soy has long been a foundation in food aid. Corn-soy blend is one of the most common relief foods. More recently, emergency response groups have created high-energy ready-to-use formulas containing peanuts and soy protein isolates. The soy isolates provide a nutrient-dense cost-effective source of protein for these foods that are saving lives of severely malnourished children.

WISHH works with government agencies as well as private voluntary organizations to respond to requests for high-protein soy products, such as textured soy protein and defatted soy flour that are easily combined with locally available ingredients. These projects are focused on sustainable solutions that promote economic growth in the developing country. For example, school feeding programs using soy provide  multiple benefits. A meal at school may be the only meal a child gets so it becomes a strong reason for parents to send their children, particularly girls, to school.

A North Tongu, Ghana, school district director described the importance of a World Soy Foundation school feeding program that adds textured soy protein to local foods. "You are really going to make it possible for more children to come to school to receive not only a full stomach but to have education that will help them escape rural poverty in years to come."

His forecast was on target. School enrollment increased by 33% and average school attendance by 20% in the two rural schools where the community also received training and high-protein soy to combine with locally available products.

A unique school feeding program  in Kenya that includes soy is also helping the environment. Because children are receiving soy-based foods this reduces the need to kill local wildlife for food.

A Guatemalan pediatrics association has also recognized an important role for textured soy protein  in improving food security of children in poverty stricken areas. Textured soy protein will be offered in school feeding programs and through the pediatrics association’s work at a community center. The group will use soy protein to help nourish 300 kids with two meals a day six days a week. Many of these children come from impoverished families that make their living picking through trash for something to use or sell.

Benefits Beyond Nutrition

While the world is searching for answers to food shortages and high prices, WISHH is helping food companies in developing countries make more and better foods. They can use U.S. defatted soy flour to boost the moisture content, and therefore, increase dough yield. The defatted soy flour also helps bakers and their customers by extending shelf life as well as consumer acceptability of baked goods. Meanwhile, a WISHH project in cooperation with International Relief and Development provides textured soy protein to African women who have created sales marketing teams to offer foods and other products to rural villages.

Developing country entrepreneurs benefit through WISHH’s training and introduction of food processing technology, so people add value to, and benefit from, soy protein. WISHH hosts trainings in the United States and abroad. A South African Member of Parliament has even garnered the nickname “Mama Soy” because of the enthusiasm she has for soy.  “Mama Soy” now has unique soy processing systems that U.S. soybean growers and others are helping install in orphanages and other institutions where they can improve children’s diets. The units are also opportunities for sustainable economic development since they can produce enough for the children as well as for sales.

Soy Protein and the HIV Pandemic

Good nutrition with soy protein can be an important tool to help the more than 33 million people worldwide who are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Soy is suited to help meet their requirements for protein, calories and more.

Many heavily affected populations start out without adequate dietary protein. With the additional need for energy and proportional increase in protein requirements due to HIV infection, even more emphasis on protein availability and consumption is required to assure that adequate protein is consumed by people living with  HIV/AIDS.

Proper nutrition can assist people living with HIV/AIDS in productive jobs and being able to care for their families. That is critical when  considering more than 15 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Groups and HIV leaders in the U.S. and abroad are seeing a role for soy as they seek ways to improve the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The role of food in the campaign against HIV/AIDS  gained momentum in July 2008 with passage of the Henry J. Hyde and Tom Lantos United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act.  Under this legislation, U.S. soybean fields are literally growing  food that can help relieve human suffering.  This legislation expands the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, called PEPFAR, for five additional years, from 2009 through 2013.

About the Author

Jim Hershey is Executive Director of the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH), an organization sponsored by the soy industry that promotes the use of soy to improve diets in more than a dozen countries. He is also interim Executive Director of the World Soy Foundation, a charitable organization headquartered at the American Soybean Association in St. Louis.

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