It didn’t take long for your taste buds to catch up with your nose when you walked through the grounds of the James E. Ward Agricultural Center in Lebanon, Tenn., during Memorial Day weekend. That was when 130 teams, considered the best of the best in the barbecue world, lit their smokers and prepared chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket.
Over the holiday weekend, the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) hosted its 7th Annual World Invitational Championship. The event attracted top-tier pitmasters from across the country to compete for $70,000 in prize money, the title of World Champion, and the U.S. Soy Combine Award.
While smoke drifted through the fairgrounds and scores were tallied, Patrick Giberson, a soybean farmer from New Jersey, chatted with pitmasters and judges about the power of U.S. Soy. At first glance, soy might seem far removed from barbecue-drizzled chicken or tender pork ribs; yet, 97% of domestic U.S. soybean meal is used in animal feed, making soy the backbone of American barbecue long before the lump charcoal was lit.
“I love it,” Giberson says about the KCBS events he has judged and visited. “It’s a family, whether a soy family or the barbecue family, it’s a great event with great people. We’re here to promote, educate, and move that pile of soybeans by feeding pigs and chickens.”
That message was front and center during the U.S. Soy Combine Award ceremony. Now in its third year, the award honors pitmasters with the highest combined scores in chicken, pork, and ribs—three proteins that rely heavily on soy-based animal feed. Poultry alone consumes more than half of all soybean meal processed for livestock, while about one-quarter is fed to swine, with the remainder supporting beef cattle and dairy operations.
“You can’t put garbage in and get quality out,” says Bill Heyen, a soybean farmer from Illinois and a past KCBS world champion with team Triple H. “So, you have to have quality ingredients going in every step of the way to get quality food. You have to have good grain to feed the animals with good genetics, which will then be processed and made into good food to put on your plate. I think having high-quality ingredients throughout the process is very important.”
This year’s Lebanon event is one of six KCBS competitions nationwide that will feature the U.S. Soy Combine Award. In addition to prize money ranging from $125 to $1,000 and custom trophies, the award helps bridge the gap between farmers, meat producers, and cook teams. It showcases how sustainable agriculture supports high-quality food from farm to flame.
U.S. Soy Combine Award Events:
- May 23 – 25, Lebanon, TN: KCBS World Invitational
- June 6 – 7, Huron, SD: South Dakota BBQ Championships
- June 21 – 22, Washington, D.C.: Giant National Capital BBQ Battle
- July 11 – 13, North Wildwood, NJ: New Jersey State BBQ Championship
- October 3 – 4, Fargo, ND: ND BBQ Championship
- November 6 – 9, Kansas City, MO: American Royal World Series of BBQ
The partnership between KCBS and U.S. Soy is not only culinary but educational. Visitors learned how soybeans are also used in side dishes, like the mayo in coleslaw or the oil in cornbread, and even in sustainable serving products like biodegradable utensils made from soybean oil.
Soybeans have a robust nutritional profile and are packed with essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals that support animal growth and health. This makes them a cornerstone of sustainable food systems.
As winners received their trophies and the smell of smoke lingered in the air, one message stood out: without soy, there’s no barbecue. And at the KCBS World Invitational Championship, that story was fire.
