history of meals for millions, soy, and freedom from ... - SoyInfo Center

qualified (by personal participation) to do so... [I] I have
done considerable preparatory work among the voluminous
files which Florence [Rose] rescued in 1964.” Starts with a
few definitions.
“Preliminary–personal: Prior to my contacts with
Clifford Clinton (1939) my education and experience were
unrelated to food or nutrition or biochemistry. I did not
know what a soybean looked like. I had received academic
education in liberal arts, a law degree from George
Washington Univ. (Washington, DC)–Service in the 1st
World War (Intelligence Headquarters, 1st Div., 1st Corps
and 1st Army) (Feb. 18, 1918 to Nov. 13, 1919). Prior to
discharge I was with American School Detachment, Univ. of
Paris, faculty of laws... was employed by Clifford Clinton in
his municipal campaign to recall Mayor Shaw and elect
Fletcher Bowron. [After that] I went to Washington again
and was able (through connections there) to help Clinton get
assigned to Quartermaster General as a Civilian Consultant
on military problems. In 1944 Clinton worked out a big plan
for national restaurant operation–which led me into contact
with American food operations (General Foods, General
Mills, etc.) but more and more my political direction
became redirected into helping carry forward Clinton’s
restaurant operation idea–through a Food Service Training
School he operated at Clifton’s [cafeteria] for a year or
more.
“In the course of his work while in Washington [DC]
(during the depression years and prior to the development of
government relief programs) Clinton noted various articles
in the press and special publications that dealt with the
possibility of developing new foods from materials less
costly than those that prevailed in the American diet. In his
restaurants he had experimented successfully with serving
pre-prepared meals for 25¢ and then for 5¢–using largely
conventional low-cost foods, distress food from the
markets–day-old bread. He even had a 1¢ meal which was
subsidized by himself and others and by ‘meal tickets’ sold
to Service Clubs and Church members who would buy the
tickets for 25¢ each and then donate them to needy people
who would use them at Clifton’s restaurant to pay for their
meal.
“But this was obviously a make-shift adaptation of
conventional ‘charity.’ Clinton’s reading had led him to
repeated comments that a completely balanced and
nourishing meal could be provided at very low cost by
using abundant vegetable proteins, synthetic vitamins,
minerals from ‘non-food’ sources. It was well known that
during war shortage in England calcium from the chalk
cliffs of Dover had replaced the calcium found in milk.
Principles long recognized in the feeding of animals were
receiving attention as a source of human nutrition.
“So after much talk and correspondence, Clinton wrote
to me (from Washington) in 1944 to see if I could find a
biochemist who could (and would) develop a food product
MEALS FOR MILLIONS, SOY, AND FREEDOM FROM HUNGER 103
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which would provide complete nutrition (protein, vitamins,
minerals, calories) in a compact form that would cost no
more than 5¢–and which could be added to normal deficient
diets (rice, wheat, roots, etc.) without changing their
accustomed flavor–which would be ‘acceptable’ and not be
contrary to anyone’s religious belief or social ‘taboo.’
“So I started out–saw a few commercial chemists who
were so busy and disinterested that I about gave up until I
noted a new book [1940] on Vitamins by Dr. Henry
Borsook, Professor of Biochemistry at Calif. Inst. of
Technology.
“Borsook read Clinton’s specifications and told me they
could easily be met–that they had been met in animal feeds
for many years–that such food items had been
experimentally developed in laboratories for many years but
that the obstacle was the American Food Industry–such
institutions as the Meat Institute, the Dairy interests–
organized to protect the market for producers of their
special products. He said that Science had for a quarter
century been able to provide adequate nutrition at costs far
below what people adequately paid for foods... The Dept. of
Agriculture pleaded farmers’ income first and let human
nutrition become secondary to income interests of food
merchandisers and producers.
“‘If Clinton will serve this food in his restaurants I will
develop it here at Cal-Tech... He will have to provide about
$10,000–convert a laboratory into a kitchen, enable me to
hire a cook and a laboratory assistant and buy some
materials for developing the type of food he wants–but, he
warned, you will waste effort and time by trying to
introduce this kind of food through normal channels of trade
in the American wholesale and retail market.’
“I wrote the results of this interview to Clinton, in
Washington. He returned to Los Angeles with his wife
[Nelda] and restaurant associates signed the agreement with
Cal-Tech.
“The laboratory at Cal Tech became a kitchen. A French
cook (Mme. Soulange Berczeller) was employed and
Josephine Williams (Now, I believe one of the home
demonstration personnel in the U.S.D.A.) was the lab
assistant.
“After some experimentation with various vegetable
proteins (alfalfa etc.) Borsook decided that soybean meal
offered the best and most abundant vegetable protein
available at a price low enough to enable Clinton to serve
his ‘5¢ meal’ without losing money.”
A few key dates:
1944 Jan. 1–Clinton writes Chamberlain outlining 12
essential characteristics for the proposed new food.
1944 May 22–Clinton signs the agreement with Cal-
Tech to develop the new food with the proviso that the
formula should be free to the world. Borsook called the
product Multi-Purpose Food. Thereafter MPF was served at
Clinton’s cafeterias in Los Angeles.