WISHH Workshop Draws Processors and Food Assistance Groups
Timely Meeting as United States Ramps up HIV/AIDS Efforts

The World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Program hosted a workshop that allowed soybean processors and food assistance representatives to join WISHH in looking at successes with soy in international food assistance programs as well as explore new opportunities. Discussions ranged from how soy could be used in Afghanistan to Zimbabwe as more than 70 people took part in the event on February 12-13 in Washington, D.C.

Participants included a dozen soy processing industry representatives as well as a staff from Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOS), like Africare. U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Agency for International Development representatives also participated. United Soybean Board director Roy Bardole of Iowa attended the meeting and reported that he sees similarities between the work WISHH is doing today in developing countries with the checkoff-funded efforts in China. “It took a lot of years for the American farmer to sell into that market, but today China is buying U.S. soybeans and soy products with a promise of more in the future. WISHH is true long-term development.”

Illinois Soybean Board Director Philip E. Bradshaw also attended and was pleased to hear of ways to better utilize high-protein soy products overseas. “This is my 40^th year to grow soybeans and all my life I have been told to cut production,” Bradshaw said. “The truth is there are plenty of places in the world where demand will grow once they begin to use U.S. soy.”

The event facilitated timely dialogue on the use of soy in programs to assist people with HIV/AIDS.  Currently, 42 million people have HIV/AIDS worldwide, and efforts to combat it have received greater emphasis following President Bush’s State of the Union Address in January when he announced a new Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Congress is now considering his request for $15 billion to the fight AIDS abroad over the next five years.  

The WISHH Workshop included HIV/AIDS speakers from the National Institutes of Health as well as government agencies and PVOs. There was increasing recognition that nutritional needs must be considered in food assistance programs for people with HIV/AIDs. “Our government has taken an interest in the HIV/AIDS issue,” said World Vision Vice President Bruce Wilkinson at the WISHH workshop. “Food aid will be one of the resources to call upon.”

“As human beings, we must do whatever we can to help the nutrition of the HIV/AIDS patient,” Bardole said. “As people develop a taste for soy, they will build demand for soy.”

State soybean associations supports the WISHH program along with the United Soybean Board and American Soybean Association. The initiative is helping America’s soybean growers build more bridges between America’s bounty and sustainable nutrition programs in countries where rapidly growing populations of all income levels can benefit from soy in their diets.