Browse Peanuts Stories - Page 28

Georgia farmers plan to plant more cotton and peanuts this year. And timely spring rains have helped get both crops off to a good start. Corn growers, on the other hand, are seeing a reduction in their acreage due in part to that same rainfall.

In the shadow of a rundown block building in Los Palis, Haiti, children wearing tattered clothes bit into half-ripened mangoes they picked from the ground and wondered about the strange men toiling around in the field.

University of Georgia research isn’t done just by professors in laboratories in Athens, Ga. It’s also conducted in fields, orchards and gardens statewide by UGA Cooperative Extension agents, who look to solve problems for the people in their counties.

Selecting the best crop variety to plant can determine whether farmers make a profit. One wrong selection can result in acres of nothing to harvest. In farming, no harvest means money lost.

Georgia row-crop farmers worked hard on their fields this growing season, and Mother Nature gave them some favorable “calls.” They could break records. This coupled with fair prices could lead them, if not to a conference championship, to at least what could be called a “winning” season.

A recent University of Georgia report shows that Georgia farmers will need 20 percent more water to grow their crops in the next four decades. They’ll need it to meet increased food demand and to compete globally.

Torrential rains have flooded fields and freezing temperatures have shocked plants, turning spring into a roller-coaster weather ride for Georgia farmers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration advise consumers not to eat peanut products made with peanut butter or peanut paste made at the Peanut Corporation of America facility in Blakely, Ga. More than 1,300 products ranging from cookies and ice cream to trail mix and pet food have been recalled due to a nation-wide salmonella outbreak connected to the facility.

In connection with a salmonella investigation, the Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers against eating processed foods made with peanut butter. The country already had a large surplus of peanuts. With any decline in consumption now, that stockpile will grow, says a University of Georgia peanut expert.