Shrinking number of Va. acres devoted to peanuts

Posted to: Business Virginia
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The Associated Press
© July 1, 2009

RICHMOND

Virginia farmers planted a record low 12,000 acres of peanuts this year.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said the acreage was recorded after an early June survey conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

For contrast, growers planted 166,000 acres of peanuts in 1948. The 12,000 acres is down 50 percent from last year.

Virginia growers produce a larger peanut used for snacks or sold in the shell. They haven't been implicated in the national salmonella scare.

Among other Virginia crops, corn production is up 10,000 acres, to 480,000 acres; and soybeans are up 3 percent from last year, to 600,000 acres.

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peanut capital? Ha!

Submitted by mustang.freddy on Wed, 07/01/2009 at 8:51 am.

Dothan Alabama is the real peanut capital of the world. Suffolk's peanut fest is a joke - the organizers should take a trip to Dothan to see how it's done. And have you ever tried to get a decent boiled peanut around here?

Virginia has become the southern-most point of the north.