Let’s say you’re out for a drive in your new Ford F-150 pickup which, of course, you purchased using the Iowa Farm Bureau discount. But did you know there’s an added bonus for Iowa agriculture right in the interior of your new truck?

Yep, the seat cushions, headrests and other parts of the interior of the new F-150 are filled with foam made of soybeans. It’s the same for all other vehicles built by Ford, from trucks to compact cars.

Indeed, the automaker’s engineers (nerds that they are) have calculated that there are exactly 31,251 soybeans in each Ford vehicle being built today.

That’s not a lot, considering that Iowa farmers harvested 554 million bushels of soybeans last fall. But when...