| trunk lid
of an automobile to demonstrate its durability, ASA farmers hired on a part-time basis
George Strayer as its first paid executive officer. Strayer was hired at the 1940
convention in Dearborn, Michigan, the same year that A. E. Staley, founder of the Staley
Company and the first processor to really champion the cause of soybeans, died. Strayer, a farmer-seedsman living
in Hudson, Iowa, is credited with, among other things, the establishment of Soybean Digest
Magazine and the Soybean Blue Book. That’s also how ASA’s headquarters was
established in the heart of Iowa, until it moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1978.
Strayer served as executive officer until 1967.
Prior to the Digest, the
only communication ASA members received was a copy of the proceedings from the annual
meeting and an occasional letter announcing an upcoming convention. The idea of a
newsletter had been discussed among the board of directors, so when George Strayer put
forth a proposal to produce a soybean industry magazine, guess who got the job.
Strayer was to plan,
write, edit and publish the new Digest, in addition to his responsibilities as executive
secretary of the organization, for the monthly salary of $50.00. The first issue of Digest
rolled off the presses in November 1940.
Soybean Digest was
founded on the principle that although it was a grower publication, the editorial policy
had to work for the entire soybean industry. To help serve this larger audience, the
Soybean Blue Book issue of Soybean Digest was created.
The new Blue Book
publication recognized the need for a directory and yearbook which chronicled the soybean
industry. The first Blue Book was published by ASA in 1947. The format of the Blue Book
issue of Digest was later revised to be a stand-alone communications vehicle much as it is
today.
Orginally published in 1996 in the 50th
Anniversary Edition of the Soya Bluebook. |
