Peanuts Newly Popular With Mississippi Farmers

Mississippi's peanut production has sprouted so significantly over the last decade that the state's growers association last month generated $100,000 to send three truckloads of peanut butter to Haiti.

"Peanut butter is the perfect food in a situation like this," the association's executive director, Malcolm Broome, explained in a release. "Peanut butter is portable, nonperishable and a very good source of protein."

Not long ago, a few trucks could have held the state's entire peanut crop. A strict quota system kept Mississippi's farmers from planting the legume that's long been a staple of Georgia and Virginia fields. Since the quota was lifted in 2002, Mississippi's peanut acreage has surged from 2,000 to 20,000, with production increasing every year but one, when weather got in the way.

"We've had a lot of people really interested in peanuts," says Mike Howell, area agronomist for Mississippi State University's extension service.
Among the most interested have been cotton farmers, who were in need of a strong rotation crop. But as farmers in northeast Mississippi saw what their colleagues were doing in the south, they started planting peanuts too. "It is a big switch, but most of the guys who have tried it have really liked peanuts," Howell says.

The state's peanut industry hasn't yet dented the state's diet, since farmers still ship their peanuts out of state for processing and packaging. In fact, even the Haiti-bound peanut butter was purchased from Kroger and Peter Pan. But Howell says there's been some buzz about a potential shelling operation.

"Peanuts have been really good to Mississippi," Howell concludes.