Title: The Peanut Shortage | Pages
Headings: The Peanut Shortage
The Peanut Shortage
Content: The first being the high price of cotton and the second is the recent drought conditions in the Southeast and Southwest of the U.S. You might be saying to yourself, “What does the price of cotton have to do with the lack of peanuts for my peanut butter?” The plain and simple answer is that the price of cotton this last growing season was almost double that of its highest record price in the last 30 years and this has caused many farmers who traditionally grow peanuts to transition to growing cotton. The price of cotton has jumped so drastically partially due to flooding in India, China and Pakistan last year, which are traditionally major cotton producers. Additionally, inventories of cotton have been low due to the recession and China’s growing demand for cotton. All of these factors contribute to the initial rise in the price of cotton. Then you throw in the speculators and the prices jump up again. All these price increases make the idea of growing cotton over peanuts much more enticing to many American farmers. La Niña
To be fair though, let’s look at the other factor that has greatly influenced the lack of this year’s peanut harvest, the drought that hit the American South this last year. Meteorologically speaking this recent drought was due to a La Niña weather pattern. La Niña weather systems typically create hot and dry summers, especially in the south and southeastern areas of the U.S., where the majority of peanuts are grown.