ECENTLY I WAS flipping idly through one of those airline magazines as I waited for the plane to start. My eye fell on a one-page article entitled “Table Talk.” A sentence in the first paragraph caused me to read on. “Leaning toward vegetarianism, I found a rich palette of beans, seeds, and grains,” Susan Gladin wrote. “But I still did not know how to cook them without meat, broth, and gravy.”¹ That was a problem my own mother had faced, and one that I suspect early Adventist women also found perplexing.

How to keep people interested in a vegetarian diet was something that pioneer Adventist nutritionist and physician John Harvey Kellogg also wrestled with. He was determined to persuade his patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium to accept vegetarianism. But how to do this when patients accustomed to steaks, chops, and roasts complained that vegetables alone were “boring”? The answer appeared to be to find an entrée that looked and tasted something like meat.

The sanitarium kitchen’s first answer was Nuttose, made from a combination of nuts. Later Protose, which was largely nuts laced with a goodly amount of wheat gluten, was introduced. Both products were made available in tin cans to former sanitarium patients.

Variations of these “vegetarian meats” soon sprang up around other Adventist sanitariums, notably Madison (Tennessee) and Loma Linda. Products developed through the initiative of Dr. George T. Harding III in Worthington, Ohio, became the first to gain relatively wide acceptance outside Adventism. Worthington Foods, begun at Harding’s initiative in 1939, seemed in need of several miracles to survive in a world already preoccupied with the coming of the greatest war of the century.

Harding believed vegetarian meats could be produced locally at a more reasonable price than those currently available and that manufacturing them would draw an increased Adventist population to Worthington. The local church school needed young families with children. A new food plant would thus “kill two birds with one stone.” It was something of a miracle that a $5,000 initial investment put up by Harding and a few friends succeeded in a nation just recovering from the worst depression in its history. Initial products were patterned after those produced by Dr. J. H. Kellogg’s Battle Creek Foods or Madison Foods. The first Worthington product, Choplets, frequently varied in taste from batch to batch, but its popularity continues even to the present.

When the United States entered the war in December 1941, certain items became difficult to obtain—such as steel for cans. Then another miracle occurred. The Harding Sanitarium chef discovered a rubber stamp that read “AA-l MRO.” Affixed to purchase orders, it facilitated delivery of necessary raw materials to Worthington.

With meat rationed during the war, demand for substitute “meats” rose. Money for expansion arrived at critical junctures in uninsured brown-paper-wrapped packages from a friendly female physician in California. Sometimes these packages held as much as $5,000 in small bills.

Gradually the product line increased. Veja-Links, a meatless hot dog, encountered a variety of legal challenges from state governments and competitors, but all were successfully resolved.

God also supplied people with devotion and managerial skills to pilot the company. Harding Sanitarium chef Elwin Knecht proved adept not only at coming up with tasty recipes, but was also a genius at keeping complex machinery running. James Hagle, attracted from the business office of Hinsdale Sanitarium, developed excellent managerial skills. Following the war he was able to convince Allan Buller, with whom he had gone to school at Emmanuel Missionary College, to join the staff in what became a 50-year association with the company. These two, in turn, recruited another former college friend, “Kelly” Hartman, who had taken additional study in food technology at the University of Michigan and later worked for the Michigan State Department of Health. Hartman played a key role in new product development. Veja-Links were his first major success.

Although increased availability of meat following the war caused a brief downturn in demand for Worthington products, management did not falter. Instead, they began to acquire competitors, integrating the most successful products into their own line. First it was the cutlets produced by “China Doctor” Harry Miller’s International Nutrition Laboratory. Following Dr.

J. H. Kellogg’s death, stockholders in his Battle Creek Foods Company decided in 1960 to sell the company’s meat analogs to Worthington Foods. Buller was especially elated at the sale, since he had worked briefly for Kellogg when a young man.

Another miracle occurred the day Robert Boyer walked unannounced into Allan Buller’s office with samples of spun soybean fiber. He had developed this product while trying to find a synthetic fiber for use in Ford cars. Soy fibers proved not strong enough for use as fabric but had an amazing similarity to meat in texture. With proper flavoring, they tasted and “chewed” enough like meat to satisfy former flesh-food lovers. But Worthington Foods was too small to invest in the technology to produce spun soy fiber: another miracle was needed.

Was that how Robert Boyer was able to persuade the large Ralston-Purina Company to set up a plant to produce the needed soy fibers? Although the Ralston-Purina plant produced much more than Worthington needed, they agreed to take all it could produce. It was a wise decision, as demand for this new technology soared.

One drawback to spun soy fiber was that it did not store well when canned under high temperatures. This pushed management into developing frozen soy protein products, such as Stripples and Wham. Although the initial expense was great, sales of these products also soon skyrocketed.

Labels for Missions
During the 1960s a special promotional project began that endeared Worthington Foods to Adventists. The company agreed to pay two cents for each Worthington label returned. This proved to be a perfect Sabbath school Investment project, and soon local churches were collecting Worthington labels by the dozens for this mission fund.

As the decade progressed, economic futurists projected a worldwide protein shortage. Simultaneously several companies became interested in a marketable vegetable protein. When a Stanford University report named Worthington Foods as having more market-ready foods of this type than any other company, courtship of Worthington began in earnest. Among companies interested in purchase or merger were Ralston-Purina, Beatrice Foods, and Hershey Chocolate. Coca-Cola was especially eager to acquire Worthington because, as its president said, the company needed a “halo” to escape the charge that it was making millions marketing a nonnutritious product.

Not interested in providing a “halo,” Worthington officials were more receptive to an offer by Miles Laboratories, which had long been in the health and nutrition business and was willing to buy Worthington stock with its own. Miles was also ready to include a provision that if they decided to divest themselves of the vegetarian foods business, the original Worthington stockholders would be given the option of buying the company back.

Although many an Adventist eyebrow was raised when Worthington Foods became a wholly owned subsidiary of Miles, the sale proved advantageous to all. As the public in the 1970s became aware of the dangers of cholesterol and a high-fat diet, Miles capitalized on this by developing the new Morningstar Farms line of foods, cholesterol-free and low in fat or fat-free. Where marketing had been restricted to health food stores, regular grocery retailers now proved increasingly receptive to the Morningstar line. In 10 years’ time sales of Worthington and Morningstar products quadrupled.

Then another development surprised those who were vitally interested in this new food line. Miles was purchased by a West German giant, Bayer AG. It soon became apparent that Bayer was primarily interested in producing and selling pharmaceuticals. The original developers of Worthington Foods—Harding, Hagle, and Buller—decided this might be an opportune time to repurchase the company and keep it firmly on its original course. Although it was difficult to raise the capital to accomplish this (the last $100,000 needed was obtained the day before the agreement was to be consummated), Worthington again became independent in October 1982. Only great personal sacrifice made it possible. Allan Buller, for example, cashed in his retirement funds from Miles and remortgaged his house. He was 65 at the time. Some may have thought him foolish; he considered that Providence was leading.

The 1980s were years of rapid development. Under Miles’s ownership, the Worthington plant had been unionized and a three-shift, six-day workweek instituted. The Adventist owners wanted to honor God’s Sabbath. They prayed constantly for another miracle. It was the non-Adventist supervisors who came up with a possible solution: Why not try four 10-hour days without reduction in pay? Soon Sabbath work was eliminated, the workers were happy, and a new trend for factory workers was begun. Production increased by 5 percent!

As the initial management team aged, a search for new and younger replacements began. In 1983 Dean Dale Twomley of the Andrews University School of Business joined Worthington as vice president for development. Two and a half years later he became president and CEO. Increased research and development led to new products, such as vegetarian chicken nuggets and vegemeat pocket sandwiches. It also led to negotiations that resulted in the purchase of the only denominationally owned food manufacturing business—La Loma Foods, formerly Loma Linda Foods. Prior to the sale to Miles Laboratories, Jim Hagle had proposed a merger of these two vegetarian food producers into a separate, self-supporting company. At the time, some church leaders felt this would be unwise, but in the 1980s they now saw the advantages of centralization that would free them from managing a manufacturing business.

Soy Research
Perhaps one of the greatest boons to improving sales of Worthington Foods products was the increased research into the potential benefits of using foods derived from soybeans. By 1995 a variety of researchers were suggesting that soy protein might be useful in preventing or combating cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and kidney disease. “At the very least,” wrote Dr. Mark Messia, “soyfoods provide high-quality protein, are low in saturated fat, cholesterol-free, and high in calcium as well as other vitamins and minerals.”²

As more and more Americans recognized the link between good nutrition and health, soybeans were increasingly seen as a major inhibitor of disease and a builder of improved health. Not only are soybeans the most complete source of plant protein and high in fiber, they also contain significant amounts of iron, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and the B vitamins. Soybeans are also a prime source of phytochemicals that scientists are studying intensely for their potential value in disease prevention.³

Little wonder that Kellogg’s of Battle Creek, the company that had made prepared cereals a central part of the American breakfast, should at the end of the twentieth century show an interest in buying Worthington Foods. The fact that Worthington’s annual sales were approaching $200 million and now included a product line of more than 150 items—from meat analogs to a soy-based flavoring concentrate, coffee substitutes, and liquid eggs minus cholesterol—increased its attractiveness.

Adventist Roots
It’s not surprising that a relatively small company such as Worthington would see the advantages of joining a giant corporation with international business experience, great advertising skills, and the ability to manufacture and market healthful products on a global scale. To top it off, Kellogg’s of Battle Creek also had Adventist roots. So when Kellogg’s offered Worthington shareholders a generous cash price, promising to continue the purity and high quality of foods appearing under the Worthington and Morningstar labels and to continue paying two cents per label for church projects, the deal was wrapped up.

There is little doubt that Kellogg’s research and development resources, its history of successful advertising, and its recognition of the place Worthington Foods products have come to play in Adventist homes will lead to more and better vegetarian products on local grocers’ shelves.

Kellogg’s has not forgotten the traditional source of vegetarian “meats” for most Adventists—the Adventist Book Centers and numerous small health food stores. Management indicated that they have every intention of continuing the attentive, considerate service these markets received from Worthington Foods.

Perhaps it’s time once more for Adventists to marvel at how a loving God, more than 135 years ago, thought enough of His erring and weak children to send them messages about the best possible foods for good health, and to thank God for how He has worked through human beings to constantly improve both the taste and quality of such foods.

Why should this merger take place just at this time? It’s presumptuous to think that we know the mind of God in such matters. But is it possible, just possible, that He is freeing up both human and financial resources to engage in the final loud cry heralding the Second Advent? After all, Jesus is coming back soon!

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¹ Attaché, July 2000, p. 28.
² “Modern Uses for an Ancient Bean: Soyfoods and Diseases,” Chemistry and Industry, June 5, 1995, pp. 412-415.
³ For further scientific discussion of these developments, see the following: L. Mahnan and S. Escott-Stump, eds., Krause’s Food, Nutrition and Diet Therapy, 10th ed. (2000), pp. 274-276, pp. 622-623; S. Potter, “Soy—New Health Benefits Associated With an Ancient Food,” Nutrition Today 35, No. 2 (March-April 2000): 53-60; J. W. Anderson et al., “Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Soy Protein Intake on Serum Lipids,” The New England Journal of Medicine 333, No. 3 (Aug. 3, 1995): 276-282; and A. H. Wu et al., “Soy Intake and Risk of Breast Cancer in Asians and Asian-Americans,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 68 (suppl.) (December 1998): 1437S-1743S.

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Retired after 35 years teaching history and serving as an administrator at Andrews University, Richard Schwarz writes from Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Related Websites:
     Worthington Foods
     John Harvey Kellogg
     Kellogg's Cereal Foods