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Demonstrating its commitment to developing new industrial and
consumer products that contain U.S. soy, the United Soybean Board (USB) released its annual list of soy-
based products the U.S. farmer-led organization helped introduce this year. Thanks in part to support from
USB and the U.S. soybean research and promotion program known as the soybean checkoff, 26 new soy-
based products hit the market in 2009.

USB provides funding to scientists and industrial partners to research, develop and commercialize
products containing soybeans. Marty Ross, vice chair of the USB New Uses program, is proud of the new
soy uses results the soybean checkoff has consistently helped to produce.

“To see this many products come to fruition year in and year out with the help of the soybean
checkoff is amazing,” said the Delmar, Del., soybean farmer. “Now that I’ve been on the board for five
years, I’ve seen products go from being presented to our committee all the way to commercial
introduction, and it’s very gratifying.”

USB directs its soy-based product research funding toward several categories, including
adhesives, coatings, printing inks, lubricants, plastics, fibers and solvents.

Some of this year’s new products can be easily found by consumers, including a soy-based wood
floor stain from Rust-Oleum, a line of Simmons mattresses that include soy-based foam, and a soy-based
degreaser and adhesive remover available at The Home Depot and Ace Hardware. Others, such as a soy-
based adhesive used to manufacture plywood, a soy-based pavement crack sealant and soy-based
bioremediation agents used in environmental cleanup, will mostly be utilized by industrial users.
The list of new soy-based products represents an annual culmination of a three-to-five-year
process that began with researchers trying to convince USB farmer-leaders that their ideas held potential
for increasing soy demand.

“We solicit applications, review the concepts and select them based on their technical merit and
market potential,” Ross explained. “Number one, the product must be technically feasible – can it be
done? And, number two, just because it can be done, is it viable? What’s the product’s market value, and
how many bushels of U.S. soybeans will it use?”

While the products represent a diverse range of categories, they generally have one thing in
common: they’re sustainable.

USB works to advance the sustainability movement, in part, by developing and promoting soy-
based products. Many of the projects funded led to products that use soybean oil as a replacement for
petrochemicals, making them more renewable and more environmentally friendly than their non-soy-
based counterparts.

Industrial partners of USB continue to produce an assortment of soy-based products without
impacting the world’s food supply. The food industry uses 87 percent of the U.S. supply of soybean oil.
Oil makes up just 18 percent of a soybean while the remainder consists of protein-rich meal. A USB study
found that industrial demand for soybean oil for such things as biodiesel and soy-based products increases
the supply of soybean meal, which can be used to produce more food.
USB leaders continue to look for industry partners with ideas for new products and technologies
that will grow demand for U.S. soy.

“We’re always looking ahead to the next big opportunity,” Ross said. “In the short term, I think
the potential of soy-based fibers is very exciting. And, in the long term, aquaculture can utilize a lot of
soybeans, but it will require a lot of commitment.”