Peanut Grower Editor
It seems like forever ago when I attended a National Peanut Board event in New York City. The two-day exhibition was at New York’s iconic Grand Central Station, followed by a chef demonstration and tasting event at the stylish Astor Center. Besides being my first, well only, trip to New York City, the consumer event was on the heels of one of the bleakest periods in peanut history – the salmonella outbreak and subsequent product recall. Yet, it didn’t overshadow the love people had for peanuts and peanut butter.
Even in our darkest hour, people still loved peanuts. The event proved to be an outstanding opportunity to acknowledge the isolated outbreak while reinforcing the industry’s commitment to restoring faith in the product’s quality and safety.
Thankfully, we do not have a crisis of that sort, and I hope we never do again. However, we do have a message to get to consumers. Now is the time to tell them how much more they’ll love peanuts when they find out how well peanut farmers take care of the crop and the environment. That’s the plan in the APC-led peanut sustainability initiative.
Recently we learned that peanuts are making more yield on less water. Peanuts use no direct fertilizer, and every part of the peanut plant can be used. Cover crops are often planted to graze cattle in the winter or protect the soil from erosion. As much as we want people to love our product for its taste and nutrition, people also want to love a product because it’s good for the environment. Peanuts can be that “feel good” product all the way around. The APC’s Sustainable U.S. Peanut platform aims to collect, measure and verify the data that will prove it.
Learn more about the APC’s sustainability platform on page 14 and consider registering to enter data from your peanut production. As you will read, there’s a good story to tell, but your help is needed to tell it.
