Word: peanuts
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...Jimmy Carter, the road to national political pre-eminence has been paved with peanuts. The Carter family's peanut farming and warehousing operation has provided the all-but-certain Democratic nominee with the money and time to pursue his phenomenally successful political career. At the same time, Carter's name has drawn more attention than any other-with the arguable exceptions of Planters and Skippy-to the peanut industry. It is big, modern and thriving as never before, partly at public expense...
...Peanuts today provide a livelihood to 60,000 farmers on 1.6 million acres scattered through such states as Texas. Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia -and above all, Georgia. The peanut plant is hardy enough not to require intense care, but it grows best in sandy soil. Georgia has that, and its farmers seem to have a natural flair for peanuts; anyway, the state produces almost 44% of the total U.S. crop...
Glass Jars. Peanut farming has become a highly mechanized business. Beginning in late April, mechanical planters insert seed peanuts into the soil. Though many city dwellers may think peanuts grow inside glass jars, they actually burgeon underground, like potatoes. Four or five months after planting, a machine called a "digger-shaker-inverter" trundles over the field cutting under the plant, lifting it from the soil, shaking off clinging dirt and placing it back on the ground to allow the peanut pods to dry partially. Finally, a peanut combine picks up the plants and separates the mature pods...
...years, Georgia farmers have raised their yield per acre to a record (1975 figure: 3,320 lbs.). The total U.S. crop last year was almost 4 billion lbs., up nearly a billion pounds from 1970. About 40% of the crop that is used for food is made into peanut,butter; the rest is divided among candy bars, snacks or cooking oil. Some peanuts are even crushed into feed for pigs...
Campaign Issue. Carter's operation is about average-sized. On 241 acres, he grows seed peanuts, all of which are sold to other farmers. His warehousing business buys peanuts from other farmers for sale to manufacturers. Nonetheless, Carter's business has become a potential campaign issue. The reason: an anachronistic price-support program that insulates peanut farmers from market risks and enables them to profit at the expense of the public purse...