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APC NewsletterAugust 2015
75 YEARS
DOMESTICNEWS
1 Autumn Schedule
1 Memory Book
2 SPG with Johnny Rockets
2 SPG Peanut Butter Perfection
3 West Texas Peanut Leadership
4 GPC Peanut Tour
5 NPB Marketing
INTERNATIONAL
6 Twitter Anniversary
7 APC German Website
7 APC EU Trade Shows
8 eTDE
8 Websites
8 International News
9 Totebags
PEANUT FOUNDATION
9 Updates
NUTRITIONNEWS
10 Nut Consumption & Risks of Cancer and Type 2 Diabetes
11 75th Blast from the Past
CONTENTS
DOMESTIC NEWSBUSY AUTUMN SCHEDULE FOR APC AND PEANUT INDUSTRY
This year’s expected bumper crop comes with a bumper number of activities to promote it. APC will help sponsor and partici-
pate in the 2015 China Peanut Conference to be held in Qingdao, China, September 8-9. This visit builds on the U.S. trade team visit to China in April and the Chinese trade team who visited the South-east last fall.
The annual Georgia Peanut Tour will kick off this year on September 15 in Thomasville, GA http://georgiapeanuttour.com/ The Council will bring a group of Canadian journalists to the 19th annual Plains Peanut Festival, September 26. Tyron Spearman will once again be the MC for the event which is coordinated by The Peanut Institute and generously supported by several industry companies and orga-nizations. In early October, APC will host a trade team from Mexi-co and bring them to see the harvest in Alabama and Georgia. We would like to thank our council members who are serving as hosts for our international guests. In November, the Council will lead a trade team to Japan to continue to build relations with key custom-ers there. APC will also be participating in three European trade shows this fall.
The Council’s 75th Anniversary commemorations conclude at the 2015 Winter Conference to be held in Atlanta on December 9-10 at the W Hotel in Midtown. The program will feature a look back at the last 75 years as well as a look forward.
75 YEARS
A SNIPPET FROM APC’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY MEMORY BOOK
Benjamin Birdsong served as Chairman of the NPC in 1955, presiding over the 16th Annual industry convention held in New Orleans. In the weekly newsletter “Peanut News” published
every Friday by the NPC, the convention was described as “the best attended, most constructive from a business standpoint, most hospitable and gayest socially”. A major topic on the agenda that year was to push USDA to allocate more of its oilseed research budget to peanut research. The industry was looking for ways to develop the market and to improve production quality; both issues still relevant today. That year, the Pearl Beer company of Texas conducted a joint promotion during March, to celebrate National Peanut Month. Beer and Peanuts; a timeless combo, popular all over the world.
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“Shake Your Cool Thing” and make your way to Johnny Rockets to try the new Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
made with Reese’s Peanut Butter. Southern Peanut Growers worked with Johnny Rockets to add this new shake to the menu as a promotional item August 3 through September 21.
“If sales are good Johnny Rockets had said they will likely keep it on the menu, so make your way to Johnny Rockets to get one,” said Leslie Wagner. “Tell them you’re in the peanut in-dustry and love this new shake. Those kinds of specific com-ments often make their way back to the corporate office!”
SOUTHERN PEANUT GROWERS TEAMS UP WITH JOHNNY ROCKETS TO CREATE NEW CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER SHAKE
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DISCOVER TOMRA’S OPTICAL SORTING EQUIPMENT FOR IN-SHELL PEANUTS
SOUTHERN PEANUT GROWERS PROMOTES “PEANUT BUTTER PERFECTION” THROUGH SEPTEMBER
Southern Peanut Growers created and distributed a print-ready food page to newspaper editors and online publications. The page features family favorites from our PB My Way
consumer recipe contest. In the first month after release date, the page was ordered by 167 news-papers for a total print circulation of more than 32 million and 1,269 online editions for a total online audience of more than 150 million. You can see all these winning recipes at: http://peanutbutterlovers.com/2015/05/all-time-favorite-pb-creations/
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WEST TEXAS HOSTS PEANUT LEADERSHIP GROUP
Last week, peanut farmers participating in the Peanut Leadership Academy made a trip to Texas to learn more about the region’s agricultural production and gain valuable in-
sight to further develop their skills as leaders and advocates for the industry.
The Peanut Leadership Academy is a cooperative effort between grower organizations and agricultural extension. Syngenta Crop Protection and the American Peanut Shellers Asso-ciation sponsor the academy. Participants are nominated by agricultural leaders in their counties and then selected by a committee of state leaders. This year’s academy includes farmers from across the Southeast, Virginia-Carolinas and Texas, as well as representatives of the shelling industry.
The group arrived in Lubbock, Texas, on Monday, Aug. 10, and enjoyed a full day of agri-cultural tours the following day. The first stop was at Lahey Farms headquarters in Brown-field, where Jarred Ericson, a farm partner and former PLA participant, showed the group how peanuts are farmed in West Texas.
“Many of the academy’s participants have never been exposed to agriculture in the South-west” Texas Peanut Producers Board Executive Director Shelly Nutt said. “This trip to Texas is an excellent opportunity for them to see the scale at which many in West Texas farm. They get to see first hand the equipment that’s being used here, and get into the fields and discuss the challenges and successes in growing this crop.”
From the peanut field, the group toured Birdsong Peanut’s shelling facility. This gave them the opportunity to see all aspects of how the peanuts are processed before heading to the manufacturers.
In addition to experiencing Southwestern peanut growing, the class’ attendees had the opportunity to learn more about a crop that is quickly expanding in the region: wine grapes. Andy Timmons, a farmer and president of the High Plains Winegrowers Associa-tion, discussed the growth of the wine grape industry in West Texas before giving a tour of his Lost Draw Vineyard.
“There have been a considerable number of peanut farmers in this region look to wine grapes as a new venture,” Nutt said. “It’s such an interesting, new market for this region.”
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On Wednesday morning, the final day of the West Texas portion of the academy, the group held a classroom session in Lubbock before continuing its agricultural
tour of the region. Farmers gained powerful insight on working with the media and legislators, as well as learn more about Texas cotton, corn and issues facing the ag-ricultural industry in the state.
The tour continued that afternoon with a visit to a local cattle feedlot – offering the attendees’ insight on the largest sector of the Texas agricultural industry. The final stop of the tour was South Plains Compost, the makers of Back-to-Nature brands.
“We enjoy the opportunity to host each class of the Peanut Leadership Academy in our state,” Nutt said. “As our Texas farmers gain a lot of insight touring in the South-east, we hope the farmers from other regions have a fun, educational experience here.”
All-in-all the academy’s visit to West Texas was a success. The class will make its next trip to D.C. in a few months to gain firsthand experience in agricultural advocacy on The Hill.
WEST TEXAS HOSTS PEANUT LEADERSHIP GROUP, continued
The 29th annual Georgia Peanut Tour will be located in the Thomasville,
GA area. The host hotel is the Best Western Rose City Conference Center (229-226-9998). Rooms are available at the rate of $101 for a single/double room and $115 for a suite. Once the Best Western is full, additional hotel
accommodations can be made at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites by calling 229-226-4666. Ask for the Georgia Peanut Tour room block.
Stops on the tour will include three grower/field visits, the University of Georgia Research & Education Center, Lewis M. Carter Manufacturing, Fudge-Birdsong Peanuts Buying Point, Birdsong Peanuts shelling plant, and more!
Visit www.georgiapeanuttour.com to register and view the tour schedule or contact Hannah Jones at [email protected] or 229-386-3470. Registration is $90 per person. For special assistance or international requests contact Jamison Cruce at [email protected] or 229-386-3475.
THE 29TH ANNUAL GEORGIA PEANUT TOUR
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Signaling a new strategy of targeting millennial consumers, the National
Peanut Board unanimously approved the fiscal year 16 Program of Work at its quarterly Board meeting in Suf-folk, Va., Aug. 10 – 13. In addition, the Board unanimously approved a budget of $10,465,000 for FY-16, which begins Nov. 1, 2015 and ends Oct. 31, 2016. Before implementation, USDA must ap-prove the budget and Program of Work.
The FY-16 Program of Work focuses on consumer and trade engagement with an emphasis on digital and innovative communications that will target the millennial demographic, or consumers who are roughly 20 to 37 years of age, represent a size of about 80 million Americans and have an estimated spending power of $1.6 trillion. The Program of Work falls in line with a decision announced in July to expand Golin’s responsibilities to include marketing, advertising and public relations, following a competitive review. Golin will assist the Board in implementing content creation, digital and traditional advertising, business development, earned and social media, events and reputation management for FY-16. “We feel it’s crucial to tighten our target audience to include millennials so they can have the same relationship with peanuts that their parents and grandparents have,” said Bob Parker, president and CEO of National Peanut Board. “Market research shows this generation is bombarded with more choices and messages about snacking and nuts than older generations. Even though millennials are open to listening to messages about peanuts and peanut butter, there is not enough relevant messaging, delivered in the digital format millennials prefer, to inspire them to choose peanuts over other nuts.” “Peanuts embody the qualities millennials value: authenticity, simplicity and originality,” said Ryan Lepicier, NPB’s senior vice president of marketing and communications. “We plan to break through with a focused and relevant campaign by creating a meaningful story and brand persona that fosters a passionate and emotional connection with pea-nuts.”
The FY-16 Program of Work includes a con-tinued commitment to peanut allergy re-search, awareness and education. “Peanut producers don’t want anybody harmed by the crop they grow, so peanut allergy re-search and education remains a top prior-ity for the next fiscal year,” said Bob White, chairman and Texas delegate to the Board. “We’ll accelerate our allergy initiatives fur-
NATIONAL PEANUT BOARD SETS NEW MARKETING DIRECTION FOR FY-16
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ther with a comprehensive program that connects with consumers, school administra-tors and health and nutrition experts to help make sure their decisions are based on sound science.” Since 2001, the Board has allocated more than $10 million in food allergy research, outreach and education.
Also, the meeting included a Grower Listening Session with an information exchange be-tween the Virginia Peanut Growers Association, North Carolina Peanut Growers Associa-tion and National Peanut Board.
“This listening session and NPB’s mission of moving their meeting to different regions is important,” said Dell Cotton, executive director of the Virginia Peanut Growers Associa-tion. “First, growers fund the NPB and this gives the growers the opportunity to be a part of the process and understand the lengths that their member and alternate go through to act on the growers’ behalf. Secondly, the growers in each state, no matter how small the acreage may be, are important to the NPB. We were thrilled to host the Board in Virginia and we appreciate the research, educational, and promotion efforts undertaken by the Board for the benefit of all US growers.”
NATIONAL PEANUT BOARD SETS NEW MARKETING DIRECTION FOR FY-16, continued
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
OUR TWITTER ANNIVERSARY
APC’s London office is about to celebrate an important anniversary – we joined the ranks of the Twitterati in
August 2014. Since then @USA_Peanuts_UK has put out 2000+ tweets mainly about health and trade issues, nutrition
findings and allergy developments which could affect the glob-al peanut industry. By being based in Europe, APC London’s
twitter platform complements and extends APC’s Headquarters twitter in the US @pnutsusa and means APC can give wider cov-
erage and for longer during the international business day to issues that people in the industry need to know about.
Twitter isn’t just for talking. We can listen to what people are saying about things we need to know, too. We’ve identified a number of new companies using USA peanuts in Eu-rope that way. It’s very much a two-way street, not just a way for us to push information out. What we really like are conversations with people we’d otherwise probably never get to know. We even have a follower in China who works in the peanut business and who says she is a big fan of Jif peanut butter which she buys locally.
APC London currently has almost 200 followers, which may not seem a large number but it’s the quality of followers that matters not the quantity. People who follow and talk to us range from scientists, to dietitians, to US peanut companies exporting to Europe, to APC
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member companies based in Europe, to allergists and other health professionals, sports scientists, food industry regulators and patient-led allergy organizations. And of course, no list is complete without some food media followers. The geographical spread of our followers spans the globe.
Twitter has allowed APC to get a quick grip on media stories and rebut inaccu-racies, like the widespread media misun-derstanding about so-called “hypoaller-genic” peanuts. Whether this research
will ever produce a clinically feasible and marketable product is open to debate, but if and when it does – as we keep reminding the Twitterverse – “hypoallergenic” will not mean “allergen-free” and that is a distinction which media must understand.
In 2016 we will be tweeting up a storm getting ready for and during the next International Peanut Forum which happens in Madrid in April 2016. If you can’t make it in person, you can follow the highlights of the peanut world’s most important get-together on Twitter @US_Peanuts_UK. If you haven’t already, sign up today and join in the conversation.
APC LAUNCHES NEW GERMAN WEBSITE
Members in Germany may be interested to know that APC has launched a new German language website www.usaerdnuesse.
com The website includes the latest information on importing US peanuts into the EU, links to supplier lists and a calendar of events that industry members might want to attend.
APC TO EXHIBIT AT EU TRADE SHOWS
APC staff and consultants will be manning stands at the following trade shows this Fall:
1st October: World Chocolate Forum. British Library, London, UK. One of the chocolate industry’s largest networking events http://kennedysevents.com/
10th – 14th October: ANUGA, Koln Messe, Cologne, Germany. The world’s leading food fair for the retail trade, food service and catering industries. Visit us at the INC Nuts & Dried Fruits Pavilion in Hall 10.2 D-010 http://www.anuga.com/anuga/index-2.php
1st – 3rd December: Food Ingredients Europe (FiE), Paris, France. Bringing together ingre-dient suppliers and the world’s leading food and beverage buyers and research & devel-opment specialists. Visit APC in the US Pavilion, stand # 6K80 http://www.figlobal.com/fieurope/home
eTDE
There are ongoing discussions with USDA-AMS on a fee system to sustain eTDE for the future. All FAS funds have been expended so any future development will have to be
funded by system users. The document fee will cover maintenance of the system. Any updates to existing documents or any new documents added will have to be funded by the provider of the document.
All major functions are working successfully with over 740,000 documents uploaded to date. New software for both US and EU Aflatoxin software is now available for any labs desiring to use the software.
Discussions were held last week with USDA-FAS on adding Canada, Mexico and Japan to the user list. It is hoped they will move more aggressively on adding new ports and border crossings.
The EU has made minor changes to the Annex/Checklist document. The programming is complete and the new revised document is now on eDoc. All state FSIS offices, except
Florida, are registered with eTDE and will be approving the docu-ments at your plant and online. Please notify Howard Valentine of any issues with acceptance of the electronic documents.
If you need assistance in getting registered with eTDE or need infor-mation, please contact Steve Calhoun ([email protected]) or Howard Valentine ([email protected]).
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IMPORTANT INDUSTRY RESEARCH WEBSITES
Information on peanut genomics: http://www.peanutbioscience.com
Peanut genomic data is now available at: http://www.peanutbase.org
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The European Commission has issued a Working Paper proposing to establish a permitted level of mercury and methylmercury in peanuts of .02 ppm. This is very close to the
background level of environmental contamination and may be difficult to achieve. The Working Paper will be discussed at the Standing Committee meeting on September 23. FoodDrinkEurope is monitoring this very closely and will schedule a meeting with DG SANTE to discuss the difficulty of meeting this standard.
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The revised APC totebag specifications with the addition of elongation of the bags and polypropylene fraze specifications is now available. Additionally a Certificate of Analy-
sis (COA) and a Declaration of Compliance are also available. These documents together will help insure that your bags are in compliance with FDA and EU regulations for Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers.
Work will continue through the summer with Chris Butts (USDA-ARS Dawson), several cold storages and shellers to analyze changing the recommended temperature for storing pea-nuts. Cold storage maximum temperatures up to around 50 degrees F is thought to virtu-ally eliminate condensation in totes loaded into trucks for shipment during the summer months. The results of this work will be released this Fall.
Anyone needing copies of the latest totebag specifications should contact Howard Valen-tine ([email protected]) or Christina Taylor ([email protected]).
TOTE BAGS
THE PEANUT FOUNDATION
The annual progress report for the Peanut Genome Initiative has been recently released. You can find
it at: http://peanutbioscience.com/images/PGP_2015_Report_to_Stakeholders_8-1-15_final.pdf.
The report provides a layman’s account of what has been accomplished, and in my opin-ion, it is fascinating reading. The peanut industry can be proud of what has been done in a relatively small amount of time with a relatively small amount of money. Dr. Scott Jackson, Chair of the Peanut Genome Consortium say “The peanut genome project has released the first high-quality chromosomal scale draft of peanut genome assemblies. This extraordinary achievement establishes a very sound foundation for looking deeply inside the peanut at the DNA level to discover genes that control crop productivity and quality.”
I recently gave my own very simplistic explanation of peanut genome accomplishments at the joint meeting of the American Peanut Shellers Association and the National Peanut Buying Point Association in Cordele, Georgia. I had very positive comments about the direction in which we are heading with this research and the new world of opportunities that is about to open.
A very successful meeting of the American Peanut Research and Education Society was held in Charleston last month. Attendance was the highest in several years and a great deal of new research was presented.
As I mentioned last month, I’ve been serving on three search committees for USDA posi-tions that relate to peanuts. Congratulations to Dr. Ted Webster who will assume the position of research leader for the Crop Protection and Management Laboratory in Tif-
Steve Brown, Executive Director
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NUTRITION NEWS YOU CAN USE with Dr. Andrew Craig
It’s no secret that regular peanut and nut consumption is good for you in terms of overall health and disease risk reduction. Investigating that specifically in terms of the impact of
nut consumption on two of the world’s biggest and increasing health problems – cancer and type 2 diabetes – was the focus for a major review of existing evidence by a team at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. They reported their findings this summer in Nutrition Reviews based on a systematic re-view and meta-analysis of 36 observational studies which included 30,708 patients with a median follow-up period of 10.15 years. (1)
The authors concluded that “nut consumption was inversely associated with risk of colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, and pancreatic cancer, but not with other types of cancer or type 2 diabetes. Overall, nut intake was associated with a decreased risk of cancer.”
What that means is that eating more nuts was linked with reduced risks of three specific cancers – colorectal, endometrial (cancer of the inner lining of the uterus) and pancreatic and with cancer risk overall, but that nut consumption was not linked with a reduced risk of other specific types of cancer or – perhaps unexpectedly - with type 2 diabetes.
The apparently disappointing results about type 2 diabetes should not be taken too lit-erally. The authors state that the picture that emerged from their analysis was mixed and the very strict “nuts only” criteria of the review meant that only five studies were included. They acknowledged that a number of studies have shown that diets including nuts and peanuts have positive effects in reducing risk factors for diabetes, such as mod-erating blood sugar levels. As more of these are published, a future evidence review will most likely find positive associations with this condition just as with some cancers where more studies were available for analysis. The authors commented, “the exact relationship
NUT CONSUMPTION AND RISKS OF CANCER AND TYPE 2 DIABETES: SYSTEMATIC EVIDENCE REVIEW FROM MAYO CLINIC
ton, Georgia. The search for the scientist position in the Market Quality and Handling Research group (the former Jack Davis position) in Raieigh, NC has been re-initiated. We also hope to be able to announce a new curator for the peanut germplasm collection very soon. All of these are key positions for the peanut industry and we appreciate USDA’s continued commitment to fund them.
As the production season starts to wind down, we look forward to a bountiful harvest. There are many field days and tours scheduled across the peanut belt in the next few weeks. I hope you can participate in some of these and see firsthand some of the ad-vances in peanut technology as well as some the challenges that remain.
THE PEANUT FOUNDATION, continued
APC Newsletter
NUT CONSUMPTION AND RISKS OF CANCER AND TYPE 2 DIABETES: SYSTEMATIC EVIDENCE REVIEW FROM MAYO CLINIC, continued
August 2015Page 11
between nut consumption and type 2 diabetes, as well as between nut consumption and glycemic control, warrants further exploration. Additional well controlled, well designed studies are needed to clarify this question.”
As with all observational studies, it is important to stress that the findings are associations but not evidence of cause and effect. Nonetheless, the size of the pooled evidence in this meta-analysis and the strength of the associations it revealed makes the findings credible. Twenty-two of the studies provided estimations of mixed nut consumption with risk of disease and six provided estimations for peanuts only.
Perhaps surprisingly, this systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence was the first study of its type aimed at estimating the association between nut intake and risk of cancer. That is noteworthy in its own right. The fact that it found a strong association between three specific types of cancer is very useful for planning public health programmes with high risk groups as well as individuals who know that these specific cancers are more com-mon in their own families.
1. Wu L, 2015. “Nut consumption and risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes: a systematic re-view and meta-analysis” Nutrition Reviews 73(7): 409-425. Free to download from this link http://nutritionreviews.oxfordjournals.org/content/nutritionreviews/73/7/409.full.pdf
75THBLAST FROM
THEPAST!
