Quality ~ Progress ~ Service

December 20, 2016 4:39 PM

From the Farm to the Factory: A video from the American Peanut Shellers Association shows how peanuts are harvested, processed, and used to make a variety of products.
posted by Elementary Penguin (9 comments total)

The scale and the mechanization of the process is very impressive. Their slogans need help, however.
Also, I want a 1000 kilo bag of peanuts.
posted by Bee'sWing at 5:24 PM on December 20, 2016

If this isn't shown on an upcoming episode of the New Mystery Science Theater 3000, I will be deeply disappointed.
"I want a 1000 kilo bag of peanuts." - Crow T. Robot
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:57 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

All those machines! I was impressed with them and the mind power to come up with so many machines to grow and process these peanuts.


And then I thought, as only an 80s US-ian child who grew up watching a certain show late on Saturday when they should have been well asleep would—how hasn't anyone figured out how to make a phonograph needle from a peanut?
posted by droplet at 6:39 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Granted they're Shellers so maybe it bores them, but I'm pretty sure the process of making butter out of peanuts deserves more than a single sentence.
posted by Flashman at 8:08 PM on December 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I thought this might be a "Too Many Cooks" style video, and because mechanized farming and food production is a bit incredible, and a bit insane, it kind of was.
posted by gwint at 8:11 PM on December 20, 2016

Click the related how it's made video if you want to know more about making peanut butter. ;)
posted by wierdo at 8:13 PM on December 20, 2016

The magic of YouTube recommendations brought me to this Teddie Peanut Butter Factory Tour, which I love because Teddie is without doubt the best commercially branded peanut butter in existence. Ingredients: peanuts, salt.
posted by Miko at 8:14 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Some of Dan Rather's best work.
posted by chococat at 8:22 PM on December 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

My wife's family in India are historically peanut (or "ground nut") farmers. Although many of them are now successful doctors, computer programmers, and real estate developers, they still maintain their ancestral fields. Every time I visit India, I insist on going to visit the farm. Like anything else in India, the thing that prevents mechanization is the wide availability of dirt cheap labor and all of the steps in this video are performed by hand, by people who live in huts and make pennies a day. It's amazing to see how labor intensive this is and it blows me away that they're still doing things like this in 2016. But every unskilled laborer who is digging peanuts all day is somehow providing food and shelter, and in some cases an education, for their families. A few members of my wife's family have done well in their careers outside of farming and, because their family has the strong tradition and identity as farmers, they've done some interesting things. Sure they can afford to mechanize and produce more, but financially they don't need to and they don't want to fuck over the families that have worked their land for generations. Instead, they have converted part of their lands to diversified farming, providing rice and vegetables, milk and eggs, enough to feed all of their workers' families and have provided education for all the children that have an interest and aptitude in education. The economic disparity there is stark, but it's a uniquely creative solution they've been implementing, moving a preindustrial labor force toward becoming better adapted to the 21st century, while being proudly grounded in their family's historical identity in the community.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:13 PM on December 20, 2016 [18 favorites]