Oh soy, can you see: Edamame market climbing like Jack's Beanstalk in USA: what Emperor Cheng-Nung of China considered to be a sacred grain way back in 2838 BC has become the darling of the modern bean scene among health-conscious Americans, a staple for Japanese beer drinkers, and a popular side dish for sushi lovers the world over.(The Green Scene)

Edamame (pronounced ay-dah-MAH-may), long consumed in Japan as a nutritious snack that goes down swimmingly with beer and serves up nicely as a side dish in sushi bars, has become increasingly popular among health conscious North Americans during recent years. And for good reason, as the immature green soy bean is rich in Vitamin C, calcium, iron, and isoflavones. What's more, its protein content per serving is equal to that found in both meat and eggs.

The East Asian legume, which has been cultivated in China for almost 5,000 years, has seemingly leapt onto the USA cuisine scene of late as more folks have mastered the dexterous skill of finger popping the beans out of their fuzzy pods onto a plate or directly into one's mouth.

In fact, consumption of edamame in the United States is nothing new. Green soy beans are believed to have been cultivated in colonial Georgia by Henry Young as far back as 1765. During World War II, when animal protein was in relatively short supply, they were a popular Victory Garden crop grown by Americans in the Midwest. At least six canned product lines were introduced in the 1930s and '40s, before demand fell dramatically after 1945 with the end of food rationing.

A third and larger wave of interest, which began what had by then become regarded as a "magic bean" among West Coast counter culture "hippies" in the late 1960s, has been…