How did knowledge transfer, commodity chains and regulatory institutions interact in soy’s emergence from niche to mainstream in the context of agro-food transitions in Austria’s inter- and transnational setting since the 1870s?

• Landscape level: 
  Which trends and shocks put pressure on the agro-food regime and created windows of opportunity for soy-related niche innovations to emerge?
• Regime level:
  How did arrangements of knowledge, commodification and institutions affect soy’s position in the agro-food regime?
• Niche level:
  Which developments and actors were involved in the emergence and mainstreaming of soy-related innovations?

In the last 150 years, Austria has emerged as both trader and producer of soybeans. Before soy trade and production gained momentum, Austria was a venue of early scientific experiments outside of Asia in the 1870s. In the following decades soy was considered a highly nutritious cultigen and thus a solution to agricultural and nutritional problems, but it remained in the niche.

Between the 1960s and the 1980s imports of soybean cake skyrocketed. On the other hand, domestic soy production took off in the mid-1980s and had a 20-fold expansion from 1988 to 2018. Today, Austria is the fifth biggest producer in the EU.

Most of the supply of soybeans is used for animal feed manufacturing and other forms of processing. Only a relatively small – but growing – amount is converted into foodstuffs. It is the strong link to the meat industry which associates soy with social and environmental issues, such as land grabbing, deforestation, declining biodiversity, GMOs, and agrochemical excess. However, soyfoods can play an important role in the creation of a more sustainable food system.

Despite its historical and sociological direction, the project contributes to current debates on sustainability and climate change.

The literature distinguishes three global food regimes since the onset of globalization in the late-nineteenth century. Firstly, the UK-centered or ‘extensive’ food regime (1870s–1920s). Secondly, the US-centered or ‘intensive’ food regime (1940s–1970s). Thirdly, the WTO-centered or ‘flexible’ food regime (from the 1990s). The periods between different regime phases are still ‘blind spots’.

Hence, the project will contribute to ongoing debates regarding the transition from one food regime to another and the interplay of multiple levels (from local to global). It starts by distinguishing four characteristic episodes: soy as exotic plant (1873-1914), soy as emergency solution (1914-1945), soy as hidden resource (1945-1986), and soy as flexible commodity (1986-). Each focusing on time- and space-specific configurations of soy-related knowledge, commodity chains, and institutions.

The project rests on an innovative combination of Transition Theory/Multi-Level-Perspective, Food Regime Analysis, and Commodity Studies enabling the reconstruction of the complex dynamics of agro-food regimes and their transitions.

The project will integrate long- and medium-term developments (i.e., regimes and their transitions) as well as medium- and short-term episodes (i.e., up- and downscaling of niche innovations) through five methodological strategies:

• Transnational connections (Austria as a node of a global soy web)
• International comparisons (similarities and differences of Austria and other countries)
• Actor-network approaches (with a focus on knowledge transfer)
• Commodity chain analysis (with a focus on commodification)
• Critical discourse analysis (with a focus on institution building)

The long time-period and broad scope of the project call for a comprehensive set of sources:

• Printed material
• Public archives and libraries
• Private collections
• Expert interviews
• Statistical material