For the past several years, those of us living in a coastal state were plenty happy with predictions of hurricanes that never came to pass. This year, my luck ran out as Irma seemed determined to make up for the past 12 years of no hurricane making landfall in Florida. What was more stunning than the size of this record-breaking ... Read More »
Years ago, my sister-in-law started competing in triathlons. She’s always been athletically inclined, and the addition of swimming and biking was a change in pace from just being a runner. After a couple events, the bug had bit her. She started training in earnest and competed in events at least once every few months. Although she lives in Chicago, one ... Read More »
Years ago, I had the opportunity to attend one of the first Peanut Butter Lover’s conventions where fans could feel at home expressing their genuine love of our favorite nut spread. Fast forward to 2017 and fans of all things peanut have a fun, new way to show their devotion to the humble legume. They can be a complete Shell ... Read More »
My, they do grow old quickly. Am I talking about children? No, although it fits them as well. I’m talking about varieties. In the Peanut Pointer column on page 21, Kris Balkcom, agri-program associate with Auburn University, makes the point that Georgia-06G is more than 10 year’s old. More than a decade old? It seems like just yesterday Georgia Green ... Read More »
Last month’s announcement from The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health, was a real game changer. Their new guidelines means that every pediatrician and children’s health care provider will be monitoring the early introduction of peanut products to infants in order to prevent the development of peanut allergy, and parents ... Read More »
Is there anyone with more faith than the farmer? He or she puts a tiny seed in the ground and expects big things to come. Last year, there were millions of kernels in warehouses and millions more going into the ground, and yet if domestic usage holds steady and exports continue, there could be a shortfall before the next crop ... Read More »
By now you all know that one good thing to come of the industry’s recovery from salmonella-tainted peanut butter was Peanut Proud. This charitable organization works with state grower organizations and non-profit food relief charities to respond to natural disasters by supplying peanut butter and peanut products and in other times to simply stock the shelves of food banks throughout ... Read More »
This year in the peanut industry isn’t shaping up at all like I thought it would. And that’s a good thing. With peanut warehouses busting at the seams from last harvest, but no alternatively priced crop to steal peanuts’ thunder, I thought another big year might be the death knell for the peanut world. I didn’t stop to think that ... Read More »
Warehouses are full. Prices are low, and prices of other commodities are even lower. Inputs are not lower, except maybe fuel, and now the European Union is dictating what products can be used on peanut, that is if you could possibly be sending your product overseas to one of their ports. With all of this, is there any reason to ... Read More »
I read with sadness a few weeks ago about a farmer in South Carolina who was killed when he raised his spray boom up and touched a power line. It wasn’t until he tried to get off his tractor that he was electrocuted. I’ve been around farming long enough to know it is a very dangerous occupation, but it’s doubly ... Read More »
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