The World of Soy

Christine M. DuBois, Chee-Beng Tan and Sidney W. Mintz (Editors)

As the most ecologically efficient and economical source of complete protein in human food, soy is gradually attracting more use in the American diet for its nutritional and financial value. Derived from soybean plants - the leading export crop of the United States and the world's most traded crop - soy produced for human consumption is part of a global enterprise affecting the likes of farmers, economists, dieticians, and grocery shoppers. An international group of expert food specialists - including an agricultural economist, and agricultural sociologist, a former Peace Corps development expert, and numerous food anthropologists and agricultural historians - discusses important issues central to soy production and consumption: genetically engineered soybeans, increasing soybean cultivation, soyfood marketing techniques, the use of soybeans as an important soil restorative, and the rendering of soybeans for human consumption.

«This book is a major contribution to the literature on world crops. An up-to-date review on this vitally important food has been needed, and The World of Soy fills the need with outstanding success. Particularly detailed and notably valuable are the accounts of currently produced soyfoods and how they are changing with new technology worldwide.»
-E. N. Anderson, author of Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture

«The story of soy encompasses every aspect of food and globalization, and The World of Soy takes us on an illuminating journey from the simple pleasures of home-cooking to the stark realities of mass industrial farming and food processing. This skillfully assembled collection should be at the core of every food studies curriculum.»
–Richard Wilk, professor and director of the food studies program at Indiana University, author of Home Cooking in the Global Village

Christine M. DUBOIS is Manager for the Johns Hopkins Project on Soybeans.
Chee-Beng TAN is Head of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Sidney W. MINTZ is the William L. Straus Jr. Professor Emeritus and a Research Professor of anthropology at the Johns Hopkins University.

publication year: 2008
352 pages
ISBN: 978-9971-69-413-5  Paperback  US$30.00  S$38.00

Our edition is available only in Asia.