Soy-Based Ski Wax...or Maybe Soy Ice Cream Instead?

Either way, it's a cold treat.

Here's a new invention that sounds promising: ski wax made from soybeans. Most waxes are a product of the petroleum industry. They involve toxic manufacture and refinement processes, and are of questionable biodegradability.

Soybean wax, however, is completely biodegradable and if harvested from non-GMO organic soybeans, sustainable in its agriculture also.

Here's a bit more about it:

Invented by two Purdue University sophomores from Indianapolis, Soy Ski Wax replaces the paraffin in ski wax with soybean and canola oils. The wax earned food process engineering students Faye Mulvaney and Ryan Howard $2500 each as part of an innovative uses for soybeans competition sponsored by Purdue's agronomy department and the Indiana Soybean Board.

So is it available on the market yet? That article dates from 1998.

Yes, and no. A search online yielded a few dead links to actually buy the product. My guess is that manufacturing costs are too hefty for a small entrepreneur to front.

But here's what Ryan Howard, winner of that soybean-use contest, is up to now, circa 2005:

One January night in 2004, Howard was delivering vegan-baked goods to a 24-hour diner in Wrigleyville called Pick-Me-Up when the owner asked him if Chicago Soy Dairy made soy “ice cream.” They had never made ice cream and were still fine tuning their soy milk recipe and machinery, but Howard didn’t hesitate. “Of course we do.”

Howard and Zeigler scrambled to find home ice cream makers in the dead of winter to experiment with.

That weekend, Temptation Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert was born.

...

One year later, Chicago Soy Dairy delivers soy milk and Temptation to 41 groceries and eateries in and around Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

And so, no ski wax yet, but vegan organic soy ice cream, yes! You win some, you lose some. Check out Temptation Vegan Soy Ice Cream if you live in the midwest.