BY LEE EGERSTROM Pioneer Press 2-19-2005 Minnesota soldiers stationed in Iraq are about to receive a soft touch from home. A shipment of Minnesota-made lotion left a Minneapolis warehouse on Friday. Several Minnesota-based soldiers stationed in Iraq have told their families that the hot sun and wind dries out and sometimes cracks the skin on their hands and arms. Among the soldiers are the sons and daughters of soybean farmers who have worked through their commodity promotion organization to support research on soy-based products. One such soldier is Eric Call, an Appleton, Minn., National Guardsman working on equipment maintenance near Baghdad. His father, Jim Call, is a farmer in Madison, Minn., and the chairman of the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council. "It seemed like a sensible thing to do," the senior Call said. So the council put up $2,000 to buy a pallet of SoySoft Deep Treatment Penetrating Crème from SoySoft Inc., an Edina biochemical company. The shipment includes 700 bottles of the lotion, purchased at cost. It was loaded Friday and shipped to Mankato, where the council and its companion Minnesota Soybean Growers Association have state headquarters. Call said the council is still working on arrangements to deliver the lotion to troops in Iraq. SoySoft is a Minnesota product from start to finish, said Lucy Larson, who operates the company she owns with her husband, Cliff Larson Jr., out of their Edina home. The soybean ingredients are processed in Grove City, in west-central Minnesota. A custom industrial plant in Northeast Minneapolis makes the lotion and bottles it. The company uses rented space in South Minneapolis and the Cretin-Vandalia area of St. Paul for warehousing and shipping. The company was started in 1997 and began serious promotional work in 1999 and 2000. SoySoft's two products are Deep Treatment Penetrating Crème and Daily Moisturizing Body Lotion. Combined annual sales remain below $1 million, said Cliff Larson Jr. But sales have expanded to 38 states. A basic knowledge of biology and chemistry is helpful to understand what the lotion company and Minnesota soybean farmers hope to do for the soldiers. The use of soy oil in skin-care products is increasing, the company said, because it helps soothe cracked and weathered skin and restores moisture. Several skin products use soy protein rather than soy lipids, which are the soybean oil. The process SoySoft uses to extract oil from soybean meal preserves the natural vitamin E, essential fatty acids and lecithin that are important for treating the skin. The soy lipids are then blended with botanical extracts to make the two skin products. |
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