WISHH Ambassador
March 2011
The American Soybean Association's World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) program offers exciting updates on the world of soy nutrition and global development. For your convenience, this newsletter offers live links to useful resources.
WISHH and World Soy Foundation Puts Spotlight on Nutrition and Agriculture Value Chains
 U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) met with Illinois leaders of WISHH and the World Soy Foundation after his keynote address to the Nutrition and Agriculture Conference. |
More than 100 representatives of government agencies, nutrition and development organizations, businesses as well as farmers attended the "Nutrition and Agriculture Value Chains: Finding the Links" conference on March 17 in Washington, D.C.
The World Soy Foundation and WISHH hosted the event that convenes diverse stakeholders who share the common interest in offering more nutritious diets for people in developing countries. Click here for photos from the event.
Sponsors of the Conference include: Cargill, Solae, Monsanto and the Monsanto Fund, Michigan Soybean Promotion Committee and other Qualified State Soybean Boards.
Local Manufacturers Boost Central American Diets With Soy
 Café Soluble, S.A representatives show their soy beverage and blended cereal products to soybean growers Brian Kemp (far left) of Iowa and Richard Janssen of Michigan. The Nicaraguan-headquartered company started with coffee and now markets soy foods throughout Central America. |
WISHH is working with multiple Central American food and beverage manufacturers as they expand their product lines with soy-based foods that offer nutritional and economic benefits.
Café Soluble in Nicaragua uses U.S. soy flour and soy isolates to make protein-rich products that it markets in Central America. Meanwhile, Alimentos S.A. uses soy flour from more than 23 thousand bushels of U.S. soybeans each month to make Incaparina corn-soy beverage and other soy foods. The Pan American Health Organization's Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) developed Incaparina that is now distributed throughout Central America.
"I was interested to see something that we had raised in Iowa end up being of benefit in Guatemala and other countries," said Brian Kemp, a soybean grower from Sibley, Iowa and an Iowa Soybean Association Director who joined WISHH for meetings with Central American soyfoods companies in February.
"The pattern is clear that soy products are gaining commercial markets and in feeding programs," said WISHH Executive Director Jim Hershey.
U.S. soy protein is also playing a central role in a successful program that produces a new soy food cereal, called Vitacereal. WISHH partner food companies Alimentos SA and Nutrica SA in Guatemala combine soy flour, corn and micronutrients to make products, like Vitacereal, that is used in United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) efforts in Guatemala. Partners in similar projects include Cargill, CARE, the National Soybean Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, WFP, and the World Soy Foundation.
Such successful partnerships were highlighted at the World Soy Foundation’s Corporate Social Responsibility conference held in Guatemala in late February with support from Cargill. Farmers attending the event included WISHH Program Committee Members Pat Dumoulin (Illinois), Lucas Heinen (Kansas), David Iverson (South Dakota) and Randy Van Kooten (Iowa) as well as Kemp, Richard Janssen (Michigan) and Rodney Smith (Nebraska).
ASA’s WISHH and USDA Ship Soy Flour
5000 Afghan Families to Benefit
 U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service Associate Administrator Janet Nuzum joined WISHH, soybean farmers and staff from three states at ARREFF Terminals where 3,525 50 pound bags of soy flour were readied for shipment to Afghanistan. |
Soybean farmers and U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service Associate Administrator Janet Nuzum joined WISHH for the final preparations of a shipment of soy flour to Afghanistan in December. The 3,525 50-pound bags of soy flour left the Port of Virginia destined to deliver the benefits of high-protein soy to 5000 women and their families in Afghanistan.
ARREFF Terminals in Portsmouth, Va. hosted WISHH and USDA representatives for the loading of the soy flour that USDA purchased the as part of its cooperative agreement with the American Soybean Association (ASA) under the USDA Food for Progress Program. Cargill’s Cedar Rapids, Iowa facility produced the soy flour, which readily increases the protein content of traditional naan breads as well as makes soymilk and other foods.
WISHH and its partners are working with the Afghanistan Ministry of Women’s Affairs to distribute "family size" portions of the soy flour to 5000 pregnant and lactating women and their families for four months.
"We applaud USDA for putting soy flour to such good use," said ASA Director Bruce Hall, a soybean grower from LaCrosse, Va. who witnessed the loading. "Soy is an important tool to improve individual lives as well as the economies of developing countries."
WISHH launched the USDA-funded Soybeans in Agricultural Renewal of Afghanistan (SarAi) project this year. The multi-faceted effort uses soybeans to benefit Afghan farmers, food processors, and rural communities as well as women and children. It provides a total of 240 metric tons of defatted soy flour, 13,750 metric tons of soybean oil and 6,000 metric tons of soybeans over three year. Over the life of the program and all of its activities, this project will benefit more than 405,000 Afghan people.
Joining WISHH on the project are: CBI Global located in Ohio; California-based Nutrition and Education International Inc. (NEI); SALT International of Iowa; and Shelter for Life International, which is headquartered in Minnesota.
According to UNICEF, more than half of Afghan children under five suffer from moderate or severe stunting. Twenty five percent of children die before reaching their fifth birthday. The health of rural Afghan people, particularly women and children, is often the worst in the nation.
ARREFF Terminals has provided Port Of Virginia transloading services for agricultural bulk and bag products for the last 20 years. The facility boasts dedicated on-site trucking, six rail tracks, and capacity to handle 35 railcars, with service provided by both Norfolk Southern and CSX.
Kenyan Community Adopts Soy School Feeding Program as Its Own—Sets Model for Area
 WISHH Committee members and Illinois soybean growers C.W. Gaffner and Pat Dumoulin saw the positive response to soy porridge in the Masai Mara region of Kenya after the National Soybean Research Laboratory (NSRL) and WISHH launched a school feeding program. Photo credit: National Soybean Research Laboratory |
"I won’t make it to school tomorrow because I am accompanying my mother to look for food. If the school feeding had started I would stay in class and do my studies." Those are the words of a child shortly before the launch of a soy school feeding program in the Masai Mara region of western Kenya.
More than 400 children in the community now stay and study as a result of the school feeding program started by the National Soybean Research Laboratory (NSRL) at the University of Illinois with support from WISHH, the Illinois soybean checkoff, and the Anne Kent Taylor Fund. The initiative began in 2008 by working with a local company, Insta Products, to produce a corn soy porridge called Uji for the schools to serve as a mid-day meal. The porridge was well received and offered the children protein as well as energy.
The community has witnessed the results from school feeding with soy and adopted the program as its own. They are gathering the funds for its continuation. Other area school leaders and families are also exploring ways to start their own school project similar to the one that NSRL and WISHH had initiated.
An additional benefit of these programs is that offering soy protein reduces the need for families to hunt local wildlife.
Nigerian and U.S. Business Relationship Built with Soy Flour
 Alltech CEO Frank Nwabudike and business partner, Larry Umuna, toured WISHH Program Committee Member Barb Overlie and husband Don’s Minnesota farm to gain firsthand knowledge of soybean production. From left: Umuna, Barb Overlie, Nwabudike, Don Overlie and WISHH Executive Director Jim Hershey. Photo credit Veronica Bruckhoff—Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council |
WISHH started work with the Alltech company in Lagos, Nigeria in 2009. This company was well established in the baking sector, one of the key WISHH targets, and they had a keen interest in acquiring the technical skills to use soy flour as a baking improver.
Through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Quality Samples Program, WISHH provided soy flour samples to Alltech for testing. They concluded that this product would work in Nigeria. Alltech CEO, Frank Nwabudike, and his partner, Larry Umuna, came to the United States for discussions with potential suppliers of defatted soy flour and WISHH. Their trip was supported, in part by the USDA’s Emerging Markets Program and the Minnesota soybean checkoff board. The result was a signed memorandum of understanding under which WISHH would continue to provide technical assistance to Alltech and its customers. Alltech would buy, import and distribute U.S. soy flour. Both parties have honored their agreements and purchases of U.S. soy flour began in 2010.
New WISHH Soy Value Pyramid
WISHH is pleased to introduce its new WISHH Soy Value Pyramid to illustrate how soy generates both nutrition and economic growth in developing countries.
Click here to view a larger image.
WISHH Annual Report Available Now
Click here to download the WISHH annual report
“Growing Partnerships with Soy Protein.”
