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

• Summary: Dr. Henry Borsook, professor of biochemistry
at California Institute of Technology, famous for his work
with American soybeans, was awarded this Certificate of
Recognition in September at the meeting of the Southern
California Institute of Food Technologists.
The citation was given for his 14 years of work in the
development and promotion of Multi-Purpose Food (MPF)
as research director of the nonprofit Meals for Millions
Foundation–whose goal is to conquer world hunger.
In 1944 Clifford Clinton, Los Angeles restaurateur,
asked Dr. Borsook to develop a food high in nutrition, low
in cost, compact, stable in all climates, easy to cook, and
inoffensive to religious principles of any people. The result
was MPF, based on defatted soybean meal [sic, grits].
126. Chamberlain, Ernest R. 1958. Re: U.S. government
should encourage food use of high-protein, low-cost oilseed
meals. Letter to U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield, Washington,
DC, Dec. 18. 2 p.
• Summary: “... envision the secondary consequences of a
U.S. governmental policy that would focus world attention
on the acceptability and value of oil-seed meals as highprotein,
low-cost Human Food.
“Without reliance on a support price American soybean
farmers have increased their soybean crop 100-fold in 30
years without producing a surplus–providing vegetable oil
for margarine and high-quality protein feed that has made
the American chicken the best-nourished creature on earth.
“With a billion malnourished people in the world and
an annual production of 50 million tons of oil-seed meals
hardly used at all for human food why not encourage
farmers and agricultural and research scientists to do for
people what they have so effectively and profitability done
for chickens?”
“Why not encourage farmers to plant more soybeans in
place of the present problem crops?
“In 102 countries our Foundation has demonstrated the
acceptability and great nutritive value of Multi-Purpose
Food based on low-cost oil-seed proteins. This type of food
also serves, when used in small supplemental quantities, to
unlock greatly increased nutritive value of cereal foods
which form the bulk of most prevailing diets. Oil-seed
meals, used in relief feeding, have the additional advantage
of not being competitive with prevailing established world
cereal markets.”
Note: Chamberlain expounded a similar argument in
letters to Congressmen J.L. Piltcher, Chester Bowles, and
Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, during the
spring and summer of 1960 (H. Roberts 1967, p. 152).
Address: Co-Director, Meals for Millions Foundation, 215
West 7th St., Los Angeles, California 90014.
127. Borsook, Henry. 1958-1983. Papers (Finding aid to
archival collection). Los Angeles, California: California
MEALS FOR MILLIONS, SOY, AND FREEDOM FROM HUNGER 55
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2011
Institute of Technology. 5 boxes (2.5 linear feet). *
• Summary: “The Henry Borsook Papers cover the years
1958 to 1983, but significant gaps are present. Section 1 is
incoming and outgoing correspondence primarily covering
the years 1960 to 1965. It illustrates several facets of
Borsook’s career, including his relationships with
colleagues, graduate students, and the food and vitamin
industry, most notably with the American Institute of
Baking and Miles Laboratories. Section 2 provides
manuscripts and notes, including notes for talks given in the
1970s on food and international development. It shows the
breadth of Borsook’s interests and contains his book
reviews and writings on medical history and on art history.
Section 3 contains papers from the late 1970s and early
1980s related to the Meals for Millions Foundation. At the
end of the collection is a small amount of biographical
material, some reprints, slides, and several books on food
and nutrition with annotations made by Borsook.”
Background: Henry Borsook, 1897-1984, was a
Professor of Biochemistry at Caltech from 1929 to 1968.
His major contributions were in the areas of protein
synthesis and nutrition. At Caltech, Borsook was twice
chairman of the faculty, chaired the student health
committee for many years, and sponsored the
Anaximandrian Society at his home. Borsook’s interest in
proteins led him, in the early 1930s, to a new theory about
their metabolism. At that time, scientists believed the
proteins were probably very stable; Borsook demonstrated
there was a continual interchange of proteins. His 1940
book, Vitamins: What They Are and What They Will Do for
You, was among the first to present contemporary nutritional
ideas to a popular audience. Borsook showed that a good
diet consisted not of “food” but of certain amounts of
specific nutrients such as proteins, vitamins, calories, and
the like. During World War II he served on the Food and
Nutrition Board, and helped to draw up the table of
Recommended Daily Allowances. At this time he also
developed multipurpose food (MPF), an enriched meal
based on soybeans. The Meals for Millions Foundation, of
which Borsook was a co-founder and long-time trustee,
distributed MPF first to post-war Europe and later to
underdeveloped areas. Throughout his lifetime, Borsook
championed the idea that a good diet was not tied to eating
specific foods, but could be scientifically manufactured.
After retiring from Caltech in 1968, Henry Borsook moved
his laboratory to U. C. Berkeley where he continued
working until the late 1970s. (copied from the Online
Archive of California). Address: Los Angeles, California.
128. Borsook, Henry. 1958. We could feed the world:
Rising population need not mean potential starvation on a
worldwide scale. In: Edward Hutchings, Jr., ed. 1958.
Frontiers in Science, a Survey. New York: Basic Books;