Iowa farmers soon could have a niche food market for their soybeans, thanks to the work of two ISU researchers.Lawrence Johnson, director of the Center for Crops and Utilization Research, and Tong Wang, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition, are working to grow soybeans in space and to create a new, inexpensive mill to process soy oil and meal on the farm. The researchers have been working on the project, funded by the Iowa Soybean Promotion Board and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Food Technology Commercial Space Center at Iowa State, for two and a half years, Wang said. She said the process began when she and Johnson were asked by farmers and processors how to add value to their product. “The vision of this process is to produce a [non-genetically modified organism] or GMO soybean oil to supply a unique food market for human consumption, much like that of the olive oil industry in Italy and Greece,” Wang said.The conventional soy oil is chemically treated, but the oil is processed without the use of chemicals in the process Johnson and Wang are developing. Astronauts do not want to carry chemicals into space, Johnson said. The researchers are trying to make everyday products, such as vegetable oil, without chemicals, he said.”In a small-scale process, farmers can guarantee consumers an organic product,” he said. Johnson and Wang’s idea is that farmers will have an inexpensive way to produce a protein meal for their livestock. Johnson said normally the cost is around $200 per ton for soy meal, and soybean oil costs 20 cents per pound.Wang also said they are working on potential application of soybeans in space. On extended flights, astronauts will need to grow some of their own food, and soybeans have been identified by NASA as a suitable crop for growing in space, she said. Wang and Johnson are still working on a processing method to turn the soybeans into edible food, they said.