2. Working to Build a Soyfoods Industry and Movement in the Western World
(1977 April - present)
1976 April - William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi establish Soyfoods Center
(named New-Age Foods Study Center until 17 Sept. 1980) in Tokyo, Japan.
1976 Sept. 29 - 1977 Feb. 3 - Tofu & Miso America Tour. We do 70 public programs,
many TV and radio interviews, drive our van 15,000 miles in 17 weeks.
1977 April 5 - Establish Takai Tofu & Soymilk Equipment Co.
1977 Aug. 16 - First Takai catalog of tofu & soymilk equipment published.
1977 Aug. 16 - Miso Production* published by Soyinfo Center - the first book we
self-published.
1978 July 28-30 - The Soycrafters' Association of North America is founded in Ann Arbor,
Michigan. William Shurtleff helps to organize the inaugural meeting, is a founding
member, and a member of the first board of directors.
1978 - Soyinfo Center starts to develop a mailing list (typed so as to fit on pressure
sensitive labels) of all people who have purchased books or contacted us.
1979 July 15 - Tofu & Soymilk Production* published by Soyinfo Center.
1979 July - The first issue of Soycraft magazine is published by Richard Leviton, director of
Soycrafters' Association in Massachusetts. Each mailing is based on the use of Soyfood
Center's mailing list - free of charge.
1980 March 10 - Tempeh Production* published by Soyinfo Center.
1980 Sept-Dec. - Our mailing list of about 5,000 names and addresses, divided into 70 coded
categories, is computerized by Parallel Procedures in San Francisco. This was done
primarily to help Richard Leviton of Soycraft magazine.
1981 Dec. - There are now 10,900 names on our computerized Soyfoods mailing list, rising
to 13,800 names by May 1982.
3. Working to Anglicize Widely Used Japanese Words Related to Soy
During our 1976-77 Tofu & Miso America Tour, we realize the importance of working to make
common Japanese words, for which there is no good English equivalent, part of the English
language. We do this through our writing, our speaking, and above all by working with the
people at the Library of Congress in charge of the Library of Congress Subject Headings
(LCSH), which are used for cataloging books in libraries nationwide.
1985 July 3 – The unappealing term “bean curd” is officially changed to tofu. Over the next
several decades we work to have to the word “bean paste” changed to miso, “tofu residue”
changed to okara, “bean curd skin” changed to yuba, “soy bean cake” changed to tempeh,
“green soybeans” changed to edamame, etc.
We also work to introduce and popularize new English words and terms, many of which we
coined, such as: Soyfoods, silken tofu (kinugoshi), grilled tofu (yakidôfu), tofu burgers
(ganmodoki), deep-fried tofu pouches (aburagé), tofu cutlets (atsu-agé), dried-frozen tofu
(Kôya-dôfu), Hatcho miso, barley miso (mugi miso), sweet white miso (shiro miso), etc.
4. Documenting the History of Soybeans and Soyfoods (1980 Oct. - present)
1980 Sept. 10 - Start to build what we hope will become a large library at Soyinfo Center
with regular trips to the University of California at Berkeley library system
1980 Oct. 22 - Start writing History of Soybeans and Soyfoods.
1984 June 1 - History book manuscript is now completely in our word processor: 2,500+
pages, 70+ chapters. In June 2004 it was posted on the Internet for all to use.
1984 June 21 - Soyfood Center's annual summer intern program begins. Irene Yen, a
Stanford student starting her senior year, is our first summer intern.
1984 July 17 - History of Tempeh published - our first history book.
5. Studying the Soyfoods Industry and Market (1982 Sept. - present)
1982 May 16 - Soyfoods Directory and Databook (1st edition) published. Renamed
Soyfoods Industry & Market: Directory & Databook on 26 Feb. 1983. 3rd edition.
1982 Sept. 10 - Soyfoods Labels, Posters, and Other Graphics published.
1984 Feb. 25 - Soymilk Industry and Market published.
1985 Feb. 22 - Tofutti and Other Soy Ice Creams published.
1990 May 8 - Tofu Industry and Market in Europe published.
1990 July 17 - Soymilk Industry and Market in Europe published.
1994 Jan. - Soyfoods Industry and Market: Bibliography and Sourcebook published.
6. Foreign Language Editions of our Books Are Published (1980 -)
1980 July - Das Miso Buch* (hardcover and paperback) published by Ahorn Verlag
(Wolfgang and Gabriella Furth-Kuby) in Germany.
1981 Aug. - Das Tofu Buch* (hardcover) published by Ahorn Verlag in Germany.
1988 Nov. - Das Tempeh Buch* (hardcover) published by Ahorn Verlag in Germany - 6 years
after the project started.
1988 Nov. - New German pocketbook editions of Das Tofu Buch* and Das Miso Buch*
(paperback) published by Goldmann Verlag.
2006 Nov. – New Chinese / Taiwanese (complex character) editions of The Book of Tofu* and
The Book of Miso* are published in Taipei, Taiwan by Persimmon Books.
2008 Feb. - Le Livre du Tofu, French-language edition of The Book of Tofu, published in
Varennes, Quebec, Canada, by Editions AdA Inc.
7. Developing a Computerized Information Center on Soya (1980 Dec. - present)
1980 Dec. 12 – Mailing lists of Soyinfo Center and Soyfoods magazine are merged and
computerized by Parallel Procedures in San Francisco. 5,500 names in 50 coded
categories.
1983 Sept. 28 – Install first computer at Soyinfo Center, IBM-PC with 20 MB hard disk and
VisiWord word processing software to use for writing our book on History of Soybeans
and Soyfoods.
1985 May 9 – Install Revelation database manager software for developing a computerized
bibliographic database on soya.
1985 July 31 – Finish keying all 6,677 file cards (3x5 inch) into our computerized database.
Our library is now computerized.
1985 Aug. 30 – Our computerized database, containing 9,500 bibliographic records, is now
ready for use by the public.
1986 Sept. 1-16 – The first of many trips to do library research at the USDA National
Agricultural Library, Library of Congress, and National Library of Medicine -
America's three national libraries, all located in and about Washington, D.C.
1987 July 6 – Start entering Commercial Soy Products into our database.
1987 Oct. 11 – Bibliography of Soymilk, from 1578 to 1987: With 1,584 References published -
our first bibliography.
1987 Oct. 19 – Coin the name SoyaScan, start using it to refer to our computerized database,
and apply for a registered trademark, which we are issued on 19 July 1988.
1993 Feb. – Install a Novell 5-user network to link our various computers.
1995 Feb. 11 – We enter the 50,000th record into our SoyaScan database.
2000 May 9 – We enter the 60,000th record into our SoyaScan database.
2004 Oct. 3 – We enter the 70,000th record into our SoyaScan database.
2006 Oct. 16 – We entr the 75,000th record into our SoyaScan database.
2007 Jan. 1 – Soyfoods Center is renamed Soyinfo Center.
2008 Aug. 31 – We enter the 80,000th record into our SoyaScan database.
2012 July 29 – We enter the 90,000th record into our SoyaScan database.
8. Developing a Soy Graphics Collection
1980 – We start to systematically collect original (mostly color) labels, ads, sell-sheets,
posters, and other graphics related to soyfoods and soy-based industrial products.
1982 Sept. We publish the first in our “Marketing Soyfoods” series of books (in color from
Aug. 2006) on specific soyfoods (tofu, miso, soymilk, soy sauce, tempeh, soy ice cream, soy
yogurt, soy cheese, edamame, etc.).
2015 Jan 1. We have about 4,500 originals (mostly color) in our Soy Graphics Collection, sorted by subject
9. Developing a Website and Presence on the World Wide Web
2001 June – Paul and Gail King of The Soy Daily (www.thesoydaily.com) start to host
Soyinfo Center’s website, free of charge, as part of their own.
2006 Sept. 12. - Soyinfo Center starts to develop its own website (www.soyinfocenter.com).
2007 Dec. 29 - We publish our first book on the Web, free of charge, in a PDF format: "History of
Soybeans and Soyfoods in the Middle East." We use both Adobe PageMaker and Acrobat.
2012 Jan. 1 - We have published 25 major books in the series Historical Bibliographies and
Sourcebooks on Soy, on the Web, free of charge, in PDF format.
10. Oberly Award to History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in Africa on Jan. 8, 2011
This prestigious award from the American Library Association (ALA) is presented once every
two years for the best English-language bibhliography in the field of agriculture or related sciences.
11. Free Online Digital Books about Soyfoods and Soybeans Published on Google Books
55 comprehensive books by Shurtleff and Aoyagi have been published since 2008, when this
started to be our main activity. Each of these books contains hundreds of color graphics and a
detailed bibliography.
12. Current Status of Computerized Information and Accomplishments- 2015 Jan. 1
SoyaScan database now contains 94,040+ records from 1100 B.C. to the present, including
78,861 published documents, 16,562 commercial soy products, 6,184 original
interviews and overviews, and 7,284 unpublished archival documents.
More than 84% of all SoyaScan records have a summary/abstract averaging 154 words
in length.
Number of records for soy documents published before 1900: 3,866
Number of records for soy documents published 1900-1923: 7,076
Number of records for documents published before 1970: 44,849 (47.7% of total)
Thirty seven major books in the series Bibliographies and Sourcebooks on Soya, produced
from the SoyaScan database, are now available, published by Soyinfo Center.
Soyinfo Center Research Library owns about 80,000 documents, most of which have a
record in our SoyaScan database.
SoyaScan Directory now contains the name, address, and phone number of 20,464
people and organizations worldwide actively involved with soyfoods and
soybeans. Each entry is coded to show the type of activity, e.g. 2A = Tofu manufacturers.
■ Our popular books on tofu, miso and tempeh, plus two nationwide tours (1976, 1980) and
many popular articles and media appearances, were instrumental in developing widespread
popular and media interest in soyfoods (and in the word and category “soyfoods”) throughout
North America and the Western world.
■ Our three production manuals (tofu & soymilk, miso, tempeh) and Soyfoods Consulting
Service have played a key role in establishing more than 450 soyfoods manufacturing
companies in the Western world.
■ We published the first studies of the soyfoods industry and market (1982-90), established the
baseline data now widely used, and pioneered what has become a thriving field of research.
13. Collecting and Publishing Information on Vegetarianism and Other Non-Soy Food
Products That Can Replace Animal Products
1991 Oct. - Start actively collecting information specifically on vegetarianism and veganism,
and entering it into our new VegeScan database.
1992 March 4 - Bibliography of Vegetarianism: 1,755 References from A.D. 1170 to 1992,
Extensively Annotated published (360 p., large format, preliminary edition)
2012 Jan. 1 - VegeScan database now contains 8,716 bibliographic records on vegetarianism
and veganism from 238 B.C. to the present.
Best-Selling Books from Soyinfo Center
(English-language editions only, as of Jan. 2010)
Title Copies sold
The Book of Tofu ......................................... 616,017
The Book of Miso ........................................ 140,756
The Book of Tempeh ...................................... 53,400
Tofu & Soymilk Production .............................. 6,290
Other ............................................................... 9,820
Total ............................................................ 826,283 |
