(Photo: Iowa Soybean Association / Joclyn Bushman)
Rural Route 2: Penny's luck and soy's intentions
March 1, 2025
I found a penny face up on the ground the other day. Considered lucky, I put it in my pocket to bank the luck. I can’t tell if the penny made a difference, but I was a penny richer and, so far, so good.
As I was putting together this issue, I thought about that penny and the confluence of all the good things that came together to make the products and programs featured in this magazine happen. Some things, like finding this heads-up copper-coated Lincoln, were a matter of chance: right place, right time. Others, like creating hybrids suited for various growing conditions or marketable outcomes was the result of good intentions.
When forward-thinking farmers teamed up with various companies and organizations to use soy in a variety of ways, good things happened. Before the soy oil was used in the products, plant breeders collaborated with industry to determine how a specific genetic makeup of the soy could benefit end users. It’s the farmers in the middle who grow the soy that ultimately make it all happen.
I thought about Morey Hill, an Iowa farmer and Iowa Soybean Association board member who chairs the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH). As WISHH seeks to drive trade and improve food security throughout the world, it’s soy that’s making the connections and helping to improve the lives of men, women and children. “We’re focused on educating and instructing on the uses of soy protein in the human diet,” Hill says of soy’s efforts in WISHH. “We want the world to eat and live better.”
Iowa farmer Chad Krull, who you’ll meet in this magazine, routinely incorporates research trials into his on-farm program to decide if a product or a technique is worth the time, effort or money. While Chad may have some luck on his side with timely rain showers, it’s his intentional efforts to produce a better crop annually that garnered recent accolades.
When opening this issue of the Iowa Soybean Review, you likely recognized an additional product in the packaging. The Iowa Soybean Association’s Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI) team pulled together research highlights from the 2024 growing season. I’m confident this information will be helpful to you in the growing seasons to come. Whatever your interests may be, the RCFI team likely has a trial opportunity that’s a fit for your farm. I encourage you to reach out to any member of the RCFI team for questions relating to on-farm research and results.
I consider myself lucky to serve as the editor of your favorite farm publication. Thanks for the questions and the outreach via mail, email and voicemail (I do my best to respond to everyone).
Now, about that penny. Should I plant that lucky penny for someone else to find? Save it? Good intentions? Or good luck?
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