Dressing up soybeans to catch the eye of Toronto s power brokers
Professionals in power suits stride toward us from the Toronto streetcars that surge between the polished concrete office towers. They re joined by more business types, strutting into the lobby from underground parking and the warren of shops and offices beneath the city streets.
There isn t a farm in sight, or even the thought of a farm. Instead, everyone s eyes immediately go where ours have gone.
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We re in the Toronto Stock Exchange, and through the thick glass walls, a bank of monitors flashes stock prices for companies with names like EnCana, Petro-Canada and HudBay Minerals while an endless stream of bright green lettering slides by on an electronic ticker.
Today, there are a lot of down arrows.
But it s all upbeat on my side of the glass. Here, a ticker tape optimistically scrolls out the 101-plus uses of soybeans in products as diverse as adhesives, leather substitutes, wallboard, yarn, and cosmetics.
We re here in one of the top handful of Canadian power centres to talk about soybeans. That s right, soybeans.
Around the corner and down a few blocks, soybeans are part of everyday life in Chinatown. A few blocks further north by the University of Toronto, soybeans are trendy health foods.
But today s function isn t about tofu or about holistic living. Instead, it s about persuading the country s power brokers that soybeans should be a big part of their lives too.
Dale Petrie, general manager of the Ontario Soybean Growers, moves to a podium and talks of the soy industry s vision, From seed to sofa. The audience, mainly people in suits, listens to researchers
talk about the new soy-based bio-economy.
Afterwards, they meander through
the room to inspect displays of soy-based
soaps, furniture, paints, and mattresses.
Ford Canada has even come to show off
the soy-based parts in its Mustang.
This is the soybean made sexy. It s
swanky, with coffee steaming in glass
mugs and small cups of fruit smoothies.
There are high ceilings, spotlights, frosted
glass walls, and windows offering a view
of nearby office towers.
But is it effective?
Petrie later tells me the reason for the
high-profile location. We didn t want to
do the same thing that s always done. In
this part of the world, that usually means
an event in Guelph, the agricultural hub
about an hour west of Bay Street. Instead,
today s high-tech venue, known as the
TSX Broadcast Centre Gallery, is filled
with screens and monitors and
equally importantly, it s in the midst of a
very large urban audience.
We have a good story to tell, says
Petrie, as he explains the tactic, which is
also targeted at courting big city media.
He thinks soybeans have a great news
hook. Urbanites are predisposed to be
interested in soy-based green products.
It s just a matter of getting the story
through to them.
It s part of a strategy that includes more
traditional tactics, including trying to
encourage the building a new specialty oil
crushing plant in the province, together
with providing input and support to a
wide range of initiatives and groups, from
Soy20/20 to the Ontario BioAuto Council.
If the TSX venture works, Petrie sees it
