U.S. soybeans providing comfort for health care workers

Jul 13, 2020

Okabashi pledges to donate up to 10,000 pairs of sandals

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

U.S. soybeans are helping to keep the feet of America’s doctors, nurses and other health care workers comfortable as they continue working on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Okabashi, a Buford, Ga. shoe company, is donating one pair of sandals to American health care workers for every pair sold. The company commits to providing up to 10,000 pairs. About 5,000 pairs have already been donated.

And U.S. farmers are a part of the shoe company’s manufacturing process.

Each pair of Okabashi’s flip-flops and sandals is made up of about 45 percent of U.S. soybeans by weight.

Okabashi photo

Soybean oil is added to a mix that is processed through a plasticizer (an additive used to increase the elasticity of material).

The oil meets Okabashi’s needs for its product specifications and, since U.S. producers grow an abundance of soybeans, soybean oil is always readily available, said Kim Falkenhayn, president of Okabashi.

U.S. soybean producers are pleased to see their crops included in such a thoughtful campaign.

For a health care worker to receive a free pair of sandals and to know a farmer played a role in producing those sandals is special, said Belinda Burrier, a soybean grower from Union Bridge, Md. and director on the United Soybean Board.

“It’s neat to see the soybeans I grow not only being used in a unique way that supports demand for our product, but also to support front line workers during this crisis,” she said in a statement. “It’s one of the reasons I’m proud to grow soybeans. It shows the importance of continuing to look for new ways that U.S. Soy and our partners can give back to communities across the country.”

Customers can purchase a pair of sandals from Okabashi’s website or from Zappos, and can include a letter of encouragement to the donation recipient.

Farms.com has reached out to Okabashi and the United Soybean Board for comment.

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”