Food for the Hungry

In the large, airy Comedor Popular (people's dining room)* off the Plaza Espana, in Caracas, diners smacked their lips over a favorite dish: rice and black beans. Their approval marked the success of a significant experiment. For a long time, Dr. Nacio Steinmetz,/- a Polish refugee scientist, had worked to develop a vitamin-rich soybean to look and taste like the common black bean which is the chief source of protein for millions of Latin Americans. The diners at the Comedor Popular had eaten the product of his work without knowing that it was anything more than the plain black bean.

On a plantation bought for him by the Venezuelan government, Steinmetz had raised soybeans, crossbred them. Finally he had a black soybean. He named it Santa Maria. Slightly smaller and softer than the common bean, it has none of the bitter aftertaste of the ordinary soybean. More important, it is chock full of proteins and contains all the known vitamins except C. One kilo is equal in protein to six dozen eggs or twelve pints of milk, items always scarce in the Latin American diet. It is also cheaper than the regular bean: 1.50 bolivars per kilo (45-c-) instead of 2.50 bolivars (75-c-).

For food-importing Venezuelans, Santa Maria was pretty important. Said ex-Agriculture Minister Eduardo Mendoza: "This can change the national economy of our country."

*A government institution, a chain of these dining rooms feeds daily some 10,000 adults, 36,000 children. Cost of a meal: one bolivar (30-c-).

/- No kin to General Electric's late, great Physicist Charles Proteus Steinmetz.

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