NORBORNE, Mo. – “Soy Much More for ’24!” rang true for this year’s Norborne Soybean Festival, Aug. 1-3 in Carroll County. For over 40 years, this festival has built civic pride, forged greater community bonds and celebrated the area’s number one industry – agriculture, said University of Missouri Extension engagement specialist Chelsea Corkins.

But in 2024, the Soybean Festival gained national recognition during Cenex’s Hometown Throwdown, a contest to find the best hometown festival in the country. Norborne Soybean Festival won the multiyear competition title of Best Fest and a $100,000 prize.

MU Extension in Carroll County has grown its presence at this festival the past three years, Corkins said. Each year, this cross-disciplinary team of educators and volunteers has found new ways to celebrate soybeans, the farmers who produce them and the livelihoods supported by the agriculture economy. This year, the group included MU Extension engagement specialists and field specialists, nutrition and youth associates, and local 4-H Teen Council volunteers, representing nutrition, agronomy, 4-H, livestock, human development and horticulture. Over 1,500 people, more than double the 679-person population of Norborne, engaged with MU Extension education.

During the festival, MU Extension hosted various youth activities, such as a soybean sensory bin, nutrition-themed tic-tac-toe and soybean cycle coloring sheets. Educational displays featured 4-H projects, a pesticide safety table and a genetics lockbox game. Soybean plant growth stages and nutrition presentations on sugary drinks attracted both adults and youths who also explored MU Extension’s print resources.

New this year were live cooking demonstrations hosted by MU Extension highlighting soybeans as ingredients. Roasted soybeans, provided through a Soy Chef Change-Maker Grant, aimed to educate attendees on the benefits of whole soy foods like edamame, soy milk and yogurt, tofu and tempeh. For one local family, the Beef and Veggie Stir Fry offered a healthy meal the entire family enjoyed. This recipe use edamame, the whole, light green soybean harvested before ripening.

The Norborne Soybean Festival also featured open-air market vendors, food trucks, Ag in the Classroom interactive displays, kids and teens events, a watermelon-eating contest, a fish fry and multiple musical performances.

With a proud claim of producing more soybeans per capita than anywhere else in the world, Norborne continues to showcase more than 150 years of history, tradition and agriculture through its annual Soybean Festival, Corkins said.

MU Extension team members for 2024 providing resources or educational displays included:

• Nutrition program associates Amy Albertson, Carla Wayland-White and Christina Todd.
• Nutrition and health specialist Sue Robison.
• 4-H youth program associate Alex Heussner.
• 4-H Teen Council members Neva Frasier and Nash Frasier.
• Horticulture specialists Kathi Mecham and Todd Higgins.
• Livestock specialist Heather Conrow.
• Human development specialist Jessica Trussell.
• Agronomy specialist Valerie Tate.
• MU Extension in Carroll County office manager Ryan Minnick.
• Assistant extension professor Sarah Wood.
• Extension engagement specialist Chelsea Corkins.
• Northwest regional director Stacey Steffens.