Peanuts originated in South America,
probably in Brazil and Peru. They were grown as far north as
Mexico by the time the Spanish began their exploration of the
New World. When the explorers returned to Spain, they brought
peanuts with them. Later, traders were responsible for spreading
peanuts to Africa and Asia.
Records show that in the 1800's peanuts were
grown commercially in South Carolina and used for oil, food
and a cocoa substitute. However, peanuts were regarded as food
for livestock and the poor. They also were difficult to grow
and harvest, so they were not widely grown in the United States.
The first notable increase in USA peanut consumption
came in 1860 with the outbreak of the Civil War. Soldiers on
both sides turned to peanuts for food. They took their taste
for peanuts home with them and peanuts were sold freshly roasted
by street vendors and at baseball games and circuses. While peanut
production rose during this time, peanuts were still harvested
by hand, leaving stems and trash in the peanuts. Thus, poor quality
and lack of uniformity kept down the demand for peanuts.
Around 1900, labor-saving equipment was invented
for planting, cultivating, harvesting and picking peanuts from
the plants, as well as for shelling and cleaning the kernels.
With these mechanical aids, peanuts rapidly came into demand
for oil, roasted and salted nuts, peanut butter and candy.
In 1903, George Washington Carver began his
research at Tuskegee Institute. While peanut butter had been
developed by then, Carver developed more than 300 other uses
for peanuts and improved peanut horticulture so much that he
is considered by many to be the "father of the peanut
industry." The
botanist recognized the value of peanuts as a cash crop and
proposed that peanuts be planted as a rotation crop in the
Southeast cotton-growing areas where the boll weevil insect
threatened the region's agricultural base.
Today, peanuts contribute more than four
billion dollars to the U.S. economy each year. Americans eat
more than
600 million pounds of peanuts and about 700 million
pounds of peanut butter each year.
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