A house made from soybeans debuts at the Royal

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The Ontario Soybean Growers (OSG) have found a homey way to showcase the many consumer products from soybeans at this year's Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.

It's called Soy House, an entire two-bedroom bungalow made and furnished with as many soy-based products as possible. Everything from the insulation, carpet under-padding, paint, kitchen cupboards, bedding and soy foam in furniture to components and fluids in the car parked in Soy House's garage has soybeans in them. Even the potted plants inside are soybeans, says Dale Petrie, OSG general manager.

Project partner Quality Homes constructed the 1,200-square-foot, wood-frame house in its climate-controlled facility in Mount Forest. It was transported to the Royal, assembled there and finished. You'd never know it wasn't built right there, says Howard Sher, the company's executive vice-president.

Quality Homes is interested in using emerging technologies that are sustainable as well as being environmentally and consumer friendly, Sher says. "We have a very green building methodology." 

Some of the soybeans used to make the products come from Ontario, while others are from the United States and elsewhere, Petrie notes.

The idea to promote the industrial uses of soybeans, says Leo Guilbeault, OSG board chair, came from a symposium OSG hosted in Toronto in December 2008 on the 101 uses of soybeans. It's also designed to draw attention to the need for a specialty soybean crushing facility in Ontario.

Guilbeault says OSG hopes to build consumer awareness of the many products containing soybeans. "A lot of people don't realize that there is an alternative to petroleum-based products out there."

Soy House will be in the Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place, during the Royal (Nov. 5-16). After the fair, OSG and Quality hope to donate the house to Habitat for Humanity, which supplies affordable housing to low-income people. BF