September 7, 2023 • 38 mins
In this episode, we dig into the career of Dave Hoisington, director of the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut at the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Listeners will gain insights into the critical role of peanuts in global food security and how the Peanut Innovation Lab is leveraging cutting-edge research to transform peanut cultivation, marketing and consumption. From collaborating with international scientists to working closely with African peanut breeders, Dave shares stories of how genetic diversity analysis has led to the development of resilient peanut varieties that can withstand climate challenges and contribute to thriving farm systems. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of science, sustainability and global well-being.
Resources:
List of all USAID Feed the Future Labs: https://www.usaid.gov/feed-the-future
The University of Georgia's wild peanut lab website: https://wildpeanutlab.uga.edu/
Danielle Essandoh, student researcher with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut
Edited by Carly Mirabile and Jordan Powers
Produced by Jordan Powers, Emily Davenport, Carly Mirabile
Music and sound effects by Mason McClintock, an Athens-based singer, songwriter and storyteller who creates innovative soul-pop music that transcends traditional genre boundaries. Hailing from small-town Southeast Georgia, Mason's influences range from the purest pop to the most powerful gospel. Mason is a former Georgia 4-H'er and a recent University of Georgia graduate! Listen to his music on Spotify.
Almanac is an annual publication that provides a window into the work being done at CAES to make the world increasingly healthy, equitable and sustainable. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 edition is now available online. Explore stories of science in service of humanity and the environment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sound Effect (00:00):
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our livesfrom what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:21):
We're here today with Dave Hoisington, director
of the Feed the FutureInnovation Lab for Peanut,
funded by the United StatesAgency for International
Development or USAID. Dave,thanks for joining us today.
Dave Hoisington (00:33):
Thank you. It's great to be with you and talk a
little bit about peanuts.
Jordan Powers (00:36):
Absolutely! We were already having a little
off-recording conversation aboutpeanuts and already very excited
for our topics today. But beforewe really get into things, tell
us a bit about your background.
Tell us your peanut love story,how'd you get involved in peanut
research?
Dave Hoisington (00:51):
So I was born and raised in Houston, Texas,
did my undergraduate work atColorado State in Fort Collins,
Colorado, in Plant Sciences, andthen went on and did a PhD also
in Plant Biology at theWashington University in St.
Louis. After that, I decidedthat I had a really strong
interest in genetics of plants.
And so I had the opportunity todo a postdoc at the University
(01:13):
of Missouri in Columbia,Missouri, and then went on to be
a research professor there. Andthen after that took a really
sharp turn in my career andended up moving to Mexico, where
I started working on corn andwheat at an international
research center just outside ofMexico City and stayed there for
almost 16 years. When I had theopportunity then to move to
(01:34):
India to work at anotherinternational research center on
a whole different other set ofof important food security
crops, things like sorghum,millets, chickpeas, or as we
call them here, garbanzo beans,pigeon peas, and peanuts, or
ground nuts, as they are calledin many countries around the
world. And that's where I reallybecame much more acquainted with
(01:55):
a lot of the legumes, likepeanuts. And so I ended up
working there for almost nineyears as their research
director, or really running theresearch for the institute, both
in Asia and in Africa, andreally began to get a really
good understanding of theimportance that those crops play
in global food security, and inmuch of that part of the world.
At that time, it was kind oftime to move back somewhere and
(02:18):
a position here at theUniversity of Georgia opened up
to find a new director for, atthe time it was called the
peanut CCRSP, or the CooperativeCollaborative Research Support
Program that USAID was fundinghere. And so I was able to apply
and obviously was asked to join,and been here ever since and
over the last almost 10 yearsnow really became much more
(02:40):
aware of the importance ofpeanuts, how important they are
in the daily diets and aroundthe world.
Jordan Powers (02:47):
Talk about an international impact. Wow.
Emily Davenport (02:50):
Yeah, that's quite a journey. So you
mentioned that global foodsecurity is a big part of your
work. Can you tell us about howresearch is part of the
solution? And why are peanutsimportant in particular?
Dave Hoisington (03:05):
Thinking about global food security, you need
to think about the fact thatright now, the world population
is about 8 billion people.
Projections are not certain, ofcourse, but most people believe
that there's going to be around10 billion people just in the
next 30 years, by 2050. About800 million of those people are
malnourished, do not get enoughfood to eat every day. We were
(03:26):
making some pretty good headroads, we had that figure down
to almost 600 to 650 millionpeople just a few years ago. But
obviously, the COVID pandemicmade a big hit on our ability to
feed the world, as well as a lotof the social conflicts and the
unrest that are going on aroundthe world now. And so that's
slowly unfortunately beencreeping back up, whether it's
(03:48):
going to stable off and go backdown, only time will tell. But
food security is really acritical component to keeping a
secure world. Peanuts reallyplay an important role in trying
to address that food security.
And in some ways, we kind offeel like they're magical in
(04:09):
many ways. One, they're verynutritious and healthy. We know
that from research that's beendone over many years, that they
reduce cholesterol. So animportant component of reducing
heart disease can reducediabetes, they can reduce weight
gain. Having some peanuts beforea meal will reduce how much food
you actually take in during thatmeal. And probably what's quite
(04:33):
an interesting nowadays is thatthey've been shown to improve
brain function, and not onlyimprove brain function,
particularly in young children,but they can decrease the
reduction of brain function inolder adults. So Alzheimer's
disease may be one componentthat they could address this
through consumption of peanuts.
One nice thing about peanuts isit only takes a handful a day to
(04:55):
have those effects. So we're nottalking about consuming lots of
peanuts, lots of peanutproducts. And the other thing
is, it doesn't really matter howyou consume those peanuts. So
you can have them as a peanutbutter sandwich, you can eat
just a handful of roastedpeanuts, you can have them in a
candy bar. All those effects canbe achieved simply by consuming
peanuts almost daily. The otherinteresting part about peanuts
(05:18):
and food security really is thatthe plant itself is really good
at growing in very poor soils.
Unlike most crops, that you haveto produce a lot of water, you
have to irrigate them, you haveto fertilize them. Peanuts
actually can be grown in, invery poor soils. And so they
don't require a lot of inputs,which is one reason you see them
(05:40):
growing in many countries aroundthe world. It's something that
we kind of call climateresilient. So we know the
climate is changing, there'smore water, less water, more
rainfall, hotter temperatures,colder temperatures, peanut is a
plant that actually can grow ina wide range of conditions and
respond quite well. In fact, inmany countries where we work,
(06:03):
peanuts will produce a cropevery year, whereas other crops
like corn, wheat, rice, willfail. So it's a very important
crop for local food security forthose farmers and households
trying to grow them. Andfinally, it's a multipurpose
crop. We only think of it as thepeanuts that we like to eat. But
(06:23):
you can actually take the stemsand the leaves and feed them to
cattle. So they're importantpart of the livestock food. You
can use oil for burning, it wasthe original diesel fuel, so you
can actually use it as a fuel.
And so it's really an importantcrop for many different ways,
including as a bank account, wethink of putting money into a
bank, and then taking it outwhen we need it. But in the
(06:43):
countries that we work with, andthe households and farmers that
we work with, they actuallystore their peanuts. And then
when they have a problem like ahole in the roof or children
that needs to pay school fees,or they need to fix something or
they need to buy something in anemergency, they can sell some of
those peanuts. And so they don'treally have a bank account with
money, but they have a bankaccount with peanuts, and they
(07:05):
use that as a cash crop. It'squite important in the overall
economy and running of thehousehold. So because of all of
those components put together,it's really an important aspect,
or one of the solutions forglobal food security around the
world.
Jordan Powers (07:22):
Wow, have never thought about it in that light.
As you're talking about thenutritional benefits of peanuts,
of which there are many morethan I ever realized, how are
researchers taking advantage ofthese benefits to address food
security and benefit consumers?
Dave Hoisington (07:38):
So while peanuts are really nutritious
and healthy, and have a lot ofbenefits in terms of being able
to grow very well under undervery poor conditions, and one
might consider them a superfood,there is still a lot of research
that's needed to improve them,particularly to add traits into
the varieties that make themeven more tolerant to poor
conditions around the world.
We're learning more and moreabout the genes in peanuts that
(08:01):
make them nutritious and makethem healthy. And we want to
make sure that the varietiesthat are out there being grown
by farmers, irrespective ofwhere they are in the world,
that they're as nutritious andhealthy as possible. And so the
research really is focused onmaking sure that those varieties
of peanuts that are being grownand are made available to
(08:21):
farmers really have all of thesecharacteristics built into them.
Because that's the best way forfarmers to benefit from growing
that crop. Reduces theirdependency on other inputs,
being able to have access toirrigation, which is generally
lacking in most countries thatwe work in, but as well, inputs
like fertilizer or chemicals tokeep pests at bay. And so all
(08:44):
the research really is lookingat how do we actually make that
crop as nutritious andproductive as possible.
Emily Davenport (08:52):
Okay, so we've talked a lot about peanuts, but
I would love to talk a littlebit more about the fact that
they're not really a nut, andthat they're actually a legume,
but then you mentioned that alot of countries call them
ground nuts. So can you tell usmore about
Jordan Powers (09:09):
Demystify!
Emily Davenport (09:10):
What are they?
Dave Hoisington (09:15):
Yeah, I mean, peanut is kind of an unusual or,
as we like to call it, uniquecrop in that regard. You know,
if you've ever seen peanutsgrowing, and even though a lot
of people eat peanuts all thetime, they've never seen a
peanut plant. So they don't evenknow what it looks like. But if
(09:35):
you've ever had the chance tosee it, typically go down to
southern Georgia where there's alot of peanuts growing this time
of year, you'll notice that theflowers are all up at the top
like most plants, you see nicelittle yellow flowers on the
peanut plants. But what's kindof unique is that when those
flowers are pollinated, theyactually turn and head towards
the ground and they growunderground and mature into the
(09:58):
peanut that we know in thatlittle pod that you can buy in
the store if you buy them inshell. And so that's one reason
why in a lot of parts of theworld, they are called ground
nuts. Because they're nuts. Theylook like a nut, you crack them
open like a nut, the seed kindof looks like maybe the inside
of a seed of a nut. But they'regrowing underground. But I guess
(10:22):
when they came here, they lookedmore like a pea, which was a
very common legume here in theUS. And so they got the name
peanut because again, they looklike the pea, but they're in a
shell like a nut, you crack themopen, and it kind of tastes like
a nut. More like a nut than youwould think of if you're eating
a bean. So kind of aninteresting crop from the way
(10:45):
that they are grown, where youfind them. They are a legume, so
they're not in the family oftree nuts, like walnuts or
pecans. So they're much morelike a bean or a pea. And that's
a very important aspect becauselegumes fix nitrogen from the
atmosphere, so they have theability of of taking that
nitrogen out of the atmospherefixing it in bacteria that live
(11:09):
on their roots and then makethat nitrogen available to
themselves to grow. So theyrequire less nitrogen
fertilizer, but they can also ifyou incorporate that back in the
soil produce leave nitrogen inthe soil for a subsequent crop
like corn or wheat. So it's avery important component in soil
fertility and making sure thatwe have the right nutrients for
(11:31):
future crops.
Jordan Powers (11:33):
I wish listeners could see the look Emily and I
just gave each other. I thoughtI was, like, ahead of the game
in knowing that they grewunderground, but then the flower
turning and, what?!
Emily Davenport (11:43):
I didn't know that part. Like, wait the flour
goes underground? What?
Jordan Powers (11:47):
I have a whole new appreciation.
Emily Davenport (11:49):
I was imagining like a potato where it just grew
off like a root but it's not aroot, but wow, very cool.
Jordan Powers (11:57):
My mind's blown.
Emily Davenport (11:58):
Does their being a legume, is that part of
what makes them so nutritiousversus maybe being a nut? Or
their nitrogen fixing abilitieshelp with their nutritional
benefits at all?
Dave Hoisington (12:09):
The nitrogen fixing is more to allow them to
grow without inputs, likefertilizers and subsequent crops
really doesn't have a majoreffect on the quality of the nut
per se. The nut I think comesmore because of the hard shell
and the way you crack it open asopposed to a nutritious or
(12:31):
compositional comparison to aregular tree nut. Although
peanuts are good in that theyhave high oil content and high
protein that's highlydigestible. Peanut oil is
basically equivalent to oliveoil has a high, very high
temperature point. So you canheat it up extremely high when
you fry foods. A lot of Chinesecooking is done in peanut oil,
(12:54):
because you can fry it extremelyhot with without having it be
destroyed as a cooking oil. Sothat combination of good quality
protein and good quality oil,along with many of the other
aspects of the of the nut itselfmakes it extremely important.
And many legumes like peas andbeans are like that. They have a
(13:15):
very good composition.
Jordan Powers (13:17):
We sometimes just get too excited and have 15,000
additional questions.
Emily Davenport (13:20):
Yeah, like, "wait!"
Jordan Powers (13:21):
Hold on, there's more questions! Moving away from
the peanuts, specifically, andback to the Peanut Innovation
Lab, as we often call it forshort. We know that the Peanut
Innovation Lab just received $15million in funding from USAID
for another five years ofresearch. First of all,
congratulations. What an amazingthing. What does the additional
(13:42):
funding mean for the PeanutInnovation Lab?
Dave Hoisington (13:44):
Well, thank you for the congratulations. And of
course we're very appreciativeof USAID for approving another
five years for the PeanutInnovation Lab here at UGA. The
innovation labs that USAIDsupport are part of the US
government's Feed the Futureglobal food security strategy,
which really is all aboutworking together with partner
(14:07):
countries to help improve theirag systems and their ag sectors
in those countries, really tobreak this vicious cycle of food
insecurity, really to helppeople feed themselves. We know
we can't feed the world by justhanding out food to everyone. So
that strategy really workstowards helping people in
(14:28):
developing worlds in particular,to become more food secure for
themselves. Part of thatstrategy is through 20
innovation labs that USAIDsupports that are partnerships
between US universities andpartners here in the US and
abroad in specific countries.
University of Georgia has beenreally fortunate and and proud
(14:50):
of the fact that USAID hasalways had its peanut research
coordinated and led by theuniversity here, since its
inception in the early 1980s. Sowe're in our third or fourth or
fifth incarnation of thosefive-year funding phases. And I
think it's a good recognitionand credit to the peanut
(15:12):
expertise that's not only hereat UGA, but the importance that
peanut plays in the state ofGeorgia. And that's one reason
USAID continues to provide thefunding for the work that we do.
So we're called an InnovationLab. And I get calls all the
time from people that want tocome see my lab. Unfortunately,
it's not a physical lab, in thesense of a scientific lab, where
(15:36):
you'll see scientists working atthe bench and all of that. The
best way to picture it is wehave a set of offices in the
Hoke-Smith building on the UGAcampus where myself and my
management team sit, and webasically manage a series of
projects that are partnershipsbetween US universities, some in
the US government with USDA,some in some private sector with
(16:00):
partners overseas. And theseresearch projects work
collectively with some of ourkey countries, primarily in
Africa. We work for example, inWest Africa, in Senegal and in
Ghana, we work in east andsouthern Africa, in Uganda and
Malawi, as primary countries,but we have operations in many
(16:21):
other countries in Africa, wherepeanuts are very important part
of their food system. And thesepartnerships really are research
working on new varieties,working on better agricultural
or agronomy packages that helpfarmers grow these varieties
better or higher yields. Andthen we also look at many of the
other post-harvest processes ofhow to make sure that that
(16:43):
harvest is maintained as highquality can then be turned into
food, and other products thatthen can help address food
insecurity in these countries.
We also look at variouscomponents of gender. In many
countries around the world, andparticularly in the developing
countries, peanut is kind ofconsidered a woman's crop. It's
(17:06):
not a very commercial crop, likewe would think of it here in the
state of Georgia or in theUnited States. It's usually
grown in very small plots ofland, maybe less than one to two
acres of land in many countries.
It's often grown close to thehome, because it's a dependable
crop and it's very healthy andnutritious. And most people in
Africa in particular, recognizethat. So the women tend to grow
(17:29):
it, we have a strong focus onlooking at that gender component
to ground nut or peanutproduction in these countries to
try to understand how we makesure that the innovations that
we're producing really can beused most appropriately and
effectively by women to increasetheir production that they will
be able to achieve equitablebenefit in that production.
(17:51):
Because then they can make surethat that crop can benefit their
families and their householdsmost effectively. So in essence,
the Innovation Lab is our effortto coordinate all of this effort
that's going on to reallyaddress food security in our
target countries.
Jordan Powers (18:09):
Incredible work.
And we're fortunate to be housedin the same building here on
UGA's campus. And right when Istarted, the first time I came
up to the second floor, I waslike, there's a lab in our
building? Until I learned moreabout the work that y'all were
doing, I'm like that makes a lotmore sense.
Emily Davenport (18:24):
So much more sense.
Dave Hoisington (18:26):
Yeah, you would have to go down to Tifton, to
see many of the partnershipsthat we work with down there on
peanut research in the fields.
Or you can go over to the wildpeanut lab here on the campus
that really is looking at how wecross wild species of peanuts to
produce new peanut varieties,and really tap the genetics of
these wild species. And we workclosely with them because that
(18:47):
diversity is extremely importantto be able to use for our work
in Africa and here in the U.S.
Sound Effect (18:55):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (18:57):
We'll add a link to the wild peanut lab's
website in the show notes foryou so you can check out their
research.
Sound Effect (19:01):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (19:03):
Well, a sneak peek to 2024. We do have plans
to travel the Tifton to talksome peanuts, but we might have
to add some more things to ouritinerary.
Emily Davenport (19:11):
Yeah, there's so much cool stuff being done in
the wild peanut lab that's veryinteresting.
Jordan Powers (19:16):
This might be an impossible question to answer.
But tell us about a typical daywithin the Peanut Innovation
Lab. Is there such a thing?
Dave Hoisington (19:27):
Well, within the work that we do here in
Hoke-Smith, making sure that allthe projects are working well,
we have a little over 20different research projects that
are ongoing around the world. Wehave over 100 scientists and
students working under thoseprojects in 12 universities,
institutions here in the US. Wehave 12 countries in Africa that
(19:51):
we work with, probably over 20to 25 institutions across those
countries. So a very diverse setof partnerships that we manage.
So a lot of that is staying incontact, making sure that
progress is being made, tryingto identify new opportunities,
helping solve their problems sothat they can continue to move
(20:12):
forward with the research. Andso it's a lot of coordination.
We know how to use Zoomextremely well. The pandemic
didn't really affect our work,like it did a lot of work.
Because we were already usingvirtual communications a lot to
stay in touch. We did learn thatwe didn't have to fly all the
time to have some of thosecommunications, although it's
(20:34):
still nice to be there inperson. We also do a lot of
discussions ourselves as to whatelse we could be doing, where
would be some new ideas. Thenice thing is, it's not a
program that we define in yearone. And then we wait three or
four years and say, did we haveresults? We're continuing to
modify, innovate, look for newopportunities. Science is always
(20:58):
evolving new, new options forus. And so we try to figure out
how can we take advantage ofthat. That's our goal is to make
sure that the farmers who we'rereally working for have the best
science put towards theirproblems,
Jordan Powers (21:12):
We can kind of see being in the same space that
traveling and the back andforth, and I believe I actually
when I started emailing you toset up this conversation, I got
an out-of-office that said, Doyou want to send this during
their regular working hours thatbegin at 2am? And I said, oh,
boy!
Dave Hoisington (21:27):
That's probably one of the challenges is that
when you work around the world,they're usually working while
you're trying to sleep. So wetend to have very early or very
late meetings sometimes. But wealso get the opportunity and try
to take advantage whenever wecan to travel to this. I mean,
Zoom is good. It's nice to seepeople and talk to them. But
(21:47):
it's even better to be there onthe ground, to go out to the
fields, to talk to farmers, totalk to the households, talk to
the scientists, the students inthose countries to really
understand and help them solvetheir problems. So a lot of
travel is involved to thesedifferent countries. But that's
something that I've been doingalmost my entire career since I
left the U.S.
Jordan Powers (22:07):
Hearing your background, it's probably very
familiar ground for you.
Emily Davenport (22:10):
Yeah, definitely. Well, speaking of
traveling and the work you'redoing in Africa, how does that
research apply to peanuts in theUnited States?
Dave Hoisington (22:22):
We're focused a lot on working in Africa,
because as I said, we're lookingat increased world population,
about 15% of the world'spopulation, or about little over
1.2 billion people are inAfrica. Now as we look towards
the future as we go towards 10billion, whereas most
continents, countries aremaintaining their percentage,
(22:44):
Africa is actually going togrow, and it is projected to
double. So we're going to gofrom one to over 2 billion
people in Africa. About 800million people around the world
are malnourished, and over 60%of that is in Africa and
expected to grow. So that's onereason why a lot of the world,
USAID in particular, but manycountries around the world are
(23:07):
really focused on that continentand trying to help them improve
their ability to feedthemselves. The other
interesting thing about Africais the average age in Africa is
18 years of age. So it's a veryyoung continent, which means
that 40% or more of thepopulation is under the age of
15. And as we look towards thefuture, of course, as it doubles
(23:28):
its population, that's not frompeople moving in, that's from
childbirth. And so it's going toget younger and younger. And of
course, feeding young people isprobably one of the most
critical things to do whenthey're in those critical ages
of trying to learn and behealthy, we need good
nourishment. So that's a prettycritical component for why we
(23:49):
want to work in Africa and theUS government wants to support
food security and improve foodproduction in that continent.
And of course, peanuts, to meand to hopefully many people
around the world is an importantcrop in that strategy. Now, the
nice thing about the InnovationLab, though, is it has benefits
here in the U.S., tremendousbenefits. The scientists that we
(24:13):
work with all want to work withus and be part of the Innovation
Lab, not only because they feela kind of a commitment and
obligation to help feed theworld, but we know that the
climate is changing. There areimportant changes in temperature
and rainfall patterns. Some ofthose are happening right today
in the US, you know, where everyevery year is different here in
(24:34):
the state of Georgia. But manyof those climates, including
future climates, exist alreadyin Africa. And peanuts are being
grown there. And so they cantest ideas. They can look at how
peanuts respond to differentrainfall patterns, different
temperatures, even sometimesdifferent diseases that don't
exist yet here in the U.S., butif climate change continues the
(24:54):
way it's projected to could. Andthat gives them better ideas to
expand in their ability to studythose plants, those production
practices, under thoseenvironmental conditions that
are gonna be so importantwithout having to try to do that
here and in sometimes artificialconditions. A really, I think,
neat example that we've justrecently completed and are still
(25:16):
working on to improve comes fromdiseases. Many of the diseases
that affect peanuts here alsoexist in Africa. So that's good,
we can work together onsolutions for those. But there
is a very devastating diseasecalled groundnut rosette disease
that exists only in Africa. It'sa virus disease that's
(25:38):
transmitted by aphids. And sofar, it's only found on the
continent of Africa. But we knowfrom research we've done and
others have done that almost allthe varieties that are grown in
United States are extremelysusceptible to that disease, and
would not survive. So it's onereason we generally can't take
varieties from the US and justtake them to Africa. We have to
(26:00):
develop our own varieties there,because they need that
resistance to that disease. Sothey can withstand that, as well
as many other factors that areparticular for the continent.
What we've been able to do istake advantage of some work that
actually was coordinated here byUGA, and supported by the U.S.
peanut industry to sequence thepeanut genome. So several years
(26:22):
ago, the industry got together,scientists here at UGA led the
effort on a global partnershipthat was able to successfully
sequence the cultivated peanuts.
So we now know all the sequencesof the of the DNA in the genome
of of cultivated peanut. Byusing that and combining the
diversity of the peanuts that wesee in Africa that have the
resistance to the disease, anddon't, we were able to identify
(26:44):
the genes that are responsiblefor that resistance. And because
of that, now, we can actuallyhelp the US peanut industry
introduce that resistance intotheir varieties here to make
sure that if for whatever reasonthat disease became a problem,
or diseases similar to it becamea problem in here, we would have
resistance. So that's a really,to us, a very good example of
(27:06):
why we want to work in more of aglobal environment to take
advantage of diseases and otherpressures that we don't have
here. So scientists don't haveto leave the state to do that
research, they can send themabroad. And we can find
solutions to problems that areprobably going to hit us here at
home and be ready and beprepared. That's what reading
(27:27):
and science is all about.
Jordan Powers (27:29):
What an opportunity to help and make
change on a global scale, butthen also help right here at
home. My mind is blown by thispartnership and and the way that
it works and the way that itbenefits so many people around
the world. I have to go on alighter note, because I will
admit my tummy is rumbling andtalking about peanuts for the
(27:51):
last little bit here. So now Ihave to know, what's your
favorite way to eat a peanut,Dave?
Dave Hoisington (27:57):
I would have to say a peanut butter sandwich. I
grew up eating peanut buttersandwiches when I was a kid. I
still enjoy a good peanut buttersandwich. I've even come to
appreciate fried peanut buttersandwiches.
Emily Davenport (28:09):
Ohh.
Dave Hoisington (28:11):
I didn't know about until I moved to the state
of Georgia.
Jordan Powers (28:13):
Sounds like a very Georgian thing.
Emily Davenport (28:15):
It does. I have not yet had one of those.
Jordan Powers (28:19):
So no jelly, straight peanut butter.
Dave Hoisington (28:21):
Just straight peanut butter is fine with me.
Emily Davenport (28:23):
I like it.
Jordan Powers (28:24):
Solid choice.
Emily Davenport (28:25):
Yeah.
Dave Hoisington (28:25):
What many people don't understand or don't
don't appreciate is that in manycountries, and in Africa, in
particular, peanuts are consumedas part of the diet every day in
many different forms that wedon't appreciate or even know
about. Peanut soups, peanutsauces. Roasted peanuts are
pretty common. Peanut butter isnot that common in Africa, it's
beginning to grow as animportant food because they as
(28:49):
well understand children needsomething to take to school. And
it's kind of hard to findsomething, they don't have
refrigeration, anything likethat they don't have a microwave
in the school. And so a peanutbutter sandwich is pretty good.
It's healthy, it's got a longshelf life. So you can just take
a jar of peanut butter, make asandwich, the child can take it
(29:09):
to school and eat it and becauseof the health benefits, then
they can begin to see really animprovement in that child
education. In fact, we justcompleted a study under this
previous five-year phase innorthern Ghana, where we had a
little over 1000 school childrenin the elementary school in six
different villages eating apeanut based meal of kind of
(29:30):
peanut butter, slightlyfortified. And we fed that to
them every day during their9-month school year. And what we
found in that nine months isthat they actually improve their
learning ability significantlyby just consuming peanuts as
compared to those students whoweren't fed the same
peanut-based food. But what wasalso interesting is that all the
teachers said, but the kids aremuch more attentive. They stayed
(29:53):
awake, they weren't hungry, andthey also came to school, and
even the mothers in the villageswere appreciative of the project
because oftentimes what wouldhappen is children, one,
wouldn't want to go to school,not just because they don't want
to go to school, but why they'rehungry just going to go. Or they
would go and they would get anormal bowl of porridge as their
school meal, they eat it, butthen they were still hungry, and
(30:16):
they just go back home andthey'd say, well, now I'm
hungry, when am I going to getto eat? But yet, when you had a
very good, nutritious meal thatthey enjoyed eating, they would
go to school, they would beattentive, and they actually
were able to learn better. So avery important component of just
daily life in many of thesevillages, and in schools and
towns and communities in Africa.
Jordan Powers (30:37):
Absolutely. The power of the peanut.
Emily Davenport (30:39):
Very much so, yeah.
Dave Hoisington (30:41):
Powerful peanut.
Emily Davenport (30:42):
It is very powerful, a little legume.
Jordan Powers (30:45):
Little legume. So much power, though.
Emily Davenport (30:48):
I think I've heard something about a peanut
drink that was developed by aformer student. Is that right?
Or can you tell us more aboutthat?
Dave Hoisington (30:56):
Yes, there's been several attempts to develop
a peanut drink or even a peanutmilk, so to speak, some
generally not as successful aswe might want. We were able to
support several years ago, agraduate student and it was
actually working at the GriffinCampus in the food science
department there. He was fromMalawi. And his goal was to
(31:17):
develop a peanut drink thatwould be made out of local
ingredients that you would findin Malawi, that would basically
provide a significant portion oftheir nutritional needs for a
day. So over the four years thathe was here, he completed his
PhD a number of years ago, hestarted out by doing a survey in
the country where he found thatwhen you kind of equated what
(31:38):
would be a nutritious drink,most people thought of milk. So
if you didn't think of milk, youwould think of kind of a soft
drink, which was not consideredthat nutritious. It might be
something you would like todrink, but it wouldn't be
nutritious. So what he actuallydid was then decided that he
needed to combine milk andpeanuts together to kind of
create that beverage. So weworked on various formulations,
(32:00):
developed a very decentformulation that is quite good.
It has basically roasted peanutsas a base. So it's a combination
of peanut butter with milk,extremely nutritious. He's now
back in Malawi, at one of thenational universities, they're
working with us still to try tofigure out how we might move
that forward. But yes, peanutscan be used as a drink as well.
(32:23):
Some people can actually justcrush the peanuts themselves and
kind of press it and will alsomake a bit of a drink as well.
Roasting it usually improves theflavor a little bit. Raw peanuts
are a unique flavor. It's aninteresting crop in that too,
that it really changessignificantly if you've ever
eaten a raw peanut versus aroasted peanut, there's a
(32:45):
significant change in the way ittastes.
Jordan Powers (32:47):
I guess I never thought about that with peanuts,
because with things likecashews, you know, my pantry has
raw cashews and roasted cashews.
And I never thought about thatwith peanuts, that that's one
that you get salted or notsalted or lightly salted, or all
the flavorings but not reallyraw peanuts is something that
you see frequently available orconsumed. I do have one
additional question about peanutallergies. I know I said before
(33:07):
we started recording myhousehold consumes much higher
than the American average forpeanut butter, and that was one
of my husband's concerns when westarted a family was what if our
children are allergic topeanuts? Because it would be
very devastating with how muchwe consume personally. And we
hear a lot about peanutallergies, especially in the US.
Is this something that your teamsees a lot in your research,
(33:29):
especially internationally? Oris there a little bit of a
difference when you're workingoverseas in some of these
countries?
Dave Hoisington (33:38):
So in general, most of the countries that we
work with do not have anyproblems with peanut allergies.
In fact, in general, they'llhave very few allergies at all
to many of the food productsthat we have allergies to here
in the US or in the developedworld. The exact reason why
isn't entirely clear, there areseveral probable reasons. One is
(34:00):
in most countries, children areexposed to many things very
early on in life. It's not maybequite as a sanitized, highly
processed food environment likewe have here in the US in
particular, where everything hasto be extremely clean, extremely
processed, and therefore youdon't get exposed to many of
(34:20):
these other allergens that youreally should be so that you
prepared. Whereas in Africa,children are still playing
outside very early on. They'reeating peanuts from the time
they're born. And so you don'tsee those high levels of
allergies. Every once in a whileyou will meet someone who says
yeah, I have a bit of anallergy, but it doesn't stop me
eating peanuts. I just know howmany that I can eat before I
(34:42):
need to be kind of careful.
There's also been, of course,some change in some of the
recommendations in when youshould feed children or infants
potential allergens like milk oreggs or peanuts or nuts. And so
the original earlierrecommendations were to wait,
everybody was worried that theremight be reactions to those. Now
the recommendations is to startvery early on. And if you are a
(35:07):
family that doesn't have a lotof allergens, allergenicities to
food, probably safe to givethem, you know, an infant, some
peanut butter, as soon as youare comfortable with that, and
see how they react. Probablywill be no problem. If of
course, you have cases where youknow that there are potential
problems with certain foodproducts and categories, then
(35:29):
maybe you want to do it a littlebit more carefully or in a
doctor's office. But I think themain message is try it as you
know, expose children to thesefood products as early as
possible. And then that willbuild up their ability to
tolerate them later on in life.
I think the industry has seen asignificant decrease in the
(35:50):
levels of allergies to peanutsin the last several years. And
in fact, many schools evennowadays are beginning to
realize, again, the importanceof having peanuts as part of
their food offerings in theschools. So you're beginning to
see some of that come back upwith the realization that it's a
balance of exposure, and thenrecognizing when there is a
(36:11):
problem.
Jordan Powers (36:12):
Absolutely, addressing it when there's an
issue, but yeah.
Emily Davenport (36:16):
Well, we have covered a whole range of things,
what have we missed?
Dave Hoisington (36:21):
it's been important to point out how
important peanuts are. It's aninteresting crop that has been
around for a long time. Almosteveryone in the world has
probably consumed it at onepoint or another, in some form
or another. But we often seethat people don't understand
just like when we werediscussing many of the aspects
(36:41):
of peanuts, they don'tunderstand how important that
crop is. And that it can be animportant part of the economy,
of agricultural growth in in anycountry, but also in nourishing
people. And so, you know, to me,it's pointing out that it's
almost a magical crop that weneed to continue to recognize
and hopefully promote in overallfood security around the world.
Jordan Powers (37:04):
Absolutely.
Whether it's enjoying a peanutbutter sandwich or addressing
food security. I don't know manycrops that we could talk about
that has quite that range.
Emily Davenport (37:13):
Yeah.
Jordan Powers (37:13):
So Dave, thank you for joining us today. It has
been wonderful to talk aboutfood that is admittedly one of
my favorites, but learn so manynew things about it. And the
work that your team is doing istruly changing the world and
it's just wonderful to learnmore and share this with our
audiences. So thanks for joiningus.
Dave Hoisington (37:30):
Well, thank you.
Emily Davenport (37:30):
Thank you.
Sound Effect (37:31):
[music]
Emily Davenport (37:31):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
[music]
Emily Davenport (00:01):
Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we
get down and dirty with theexperts on all the ways science
and agriculture touch our livesfrom what we eat to how we live.
I'm Emily Davenport.
Jordan Powers (00:12):
And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the
University of Georgia's Collegeof Agricultural and
Environmental Sciences.
Sound Effect (00:19):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (00:21):
We're here today with Dave Hoisington, director
of the Feed the FutureInnovation Lab for Peanut,
funded by the United StatesAgency for International
Development or USAID. Dave,thanks for joining us today.
Dave Hoisington (00:33):
Thank you. It's great to be with you and talk a
little bit about peanuts.
Jordan Powers (00:36):
Absolutely! We were already having a little
off-recording conversation aboutpeanuts and already very excited
for our topics today. But beforewe really get into things, tell
us a bit about your background.
Tell us your peanut love story,how'd you get involved in peanut
research?
Dave Hoisington (00:51):
So I was born and raised in Houston, Texas,
did my undergraduate work atColorado State in Fort Collins,
Colorado, in Plant Sciences, andthen went on and did a PhD also
in Plant Biology at theWashington University in St.
Louis. After that, I decidedthat I had a really strong
interest in genetics of plants.
And so I had the opportunity todo a postdoc at the University
(01:13):
of Missouri in Columbia,Missouri, and then went on to be
a research professor there. Andthen after that took a really
sharp turn in my career andended up moving to Mexico, where
I started working on corn andwheat at an international
research center just outside ofMexico City and stayed there for
almost 16 years. When I had theopportunity then to move to
(01:34):
India to work at anotherinternational research center on
a whole different other set ofof important food security
crops, things like sorghum,millets, chickpeas, or as we
call them here, garbanzo beans,pigeon peas, and peanuts, or
ground nuts, as they are calledin many countries around the
world. And that's where I reallybecame much more acquainted with
(01:55):
a lot of the legumes, likepeanuts. And so I ended up
working there for almost nineyears as their research
director, or really running theresearch for the institute, both
in Asia and in Africa, andreally began to get a really
good understanding of theimportance that those crops play
in global food security, and inmuch of that part of the world.
At that time, it was kind oftime to move back somewhere and
(02:18):
a position here at theUniversity of Georgia opened up
to find a new director for, atthe time it was called the
peanut CCRSP, or the CooperativeCollaborative Research Support
Program that USAID was fundinghere. And so I was able to apply
and obviously was asked to join,and been here ever since and
over the last almost 10 yearsnow really became much more
(02:40):
aware of the importance ofpeanuts, how important they are
in the daily diets and aroundthe world.
Jordan Powers (02:47):
Talk about an international impact. Wow.
Emily Davenport (02:50):
Yeah, that's quite a journey. So you
mentioned that global foodsecurity is a big part of your
work. Can you tell us about howresearch is part of the
solution? And why are peanutsimportant in particular?
Dave Hoisington (03:05):
Thinking about global food security, you need
to think about the fact thatright now, the world population
is about 8 billion people.
Projections are not certain, ofcourse, but most people believe
that there's going to be around10 billion people just in the
next 30 years, by 2050. About800 million of those people are
malnourished, do not get enoughfood to eat every day. We were
(03:26):
making some pretty good headroads, we had that figure down
to almost 600 to 650 millionpeople just a few years ago. But
obviously, the COVID pandemicmade a big hit on our ability to
feed the world, as well as a lotof the social conflicts and the
unrest that are going on aroundthe world now. And so that's
slowly unfortunately beencreeping back up, whether it's
(03:48):
going to stable off and go backdown, only time will tell. But
food security is really acritical component to keeping a
secure world. Peanuts reallyplay an important role in trying
to address that food security.
And in some ways, we kind offeel like they're magical in
(04:09):
many ways. One, they're verynutritious and healthy. We know
that from research that's beendone over many years, that they
reduce cholesterol. So animportant component of reducing
heart disease can reducediabetes, they can reduce weight
gain. Having some peanuts beforea meal will reduce how much food
you actually take in during thatmeal. And probably what's quite
(04:33):
an interesting nowadays is thatthey've been shown to improve
brain function, and not onlyimprove brain function,
particularly in young children,but they can decrease the
reduction of brain function inolder adults. So Alzheimer's
disease may be one componentthat they could address this
through consumption of peanuts.
One nice thing about peanuts isit only takes a handful a day to
(04:55):
have those effects. So we're nottalking about consuming lots of
peanuts, lots of peanutproducts. And the other thing
is, it doesn't really matter howyou consume those peanuts. So
you can have them as a peanutbutter sandwich, you can eat
just a handful of roastedpeanuts, you can have them in a
candy bar. All those effects canbe achieved simply by consuming
peanuts almost daily. The otherinteresting part about peanuts
(05:18):
and food security really is thatthe plant itself is really good
at growing in very poor soils.
Unlike most crops, that you haveto produce a lot of water, you
have to irrigate them, you haveto fertilize them. Peanuts
actually can be grown in, invery poor soils. And so they
don't require a lot of inputs,which is one reason you see them
(05:40):
growing in many countries aroundthe world. It's something that
we kind of call climateresilient. So we know the
climate is changing, there'smore water, less water, more
rainfall, hotter temperatures,colder temperatures, peanut is a
plant that actually can grow ina wide range of conditions and
respond quite well. In fact, inmany countries where we work,
(06:03):
peanuts will produce a cropevery year, whereas other crops
like corn, wheat, rice, willfail. So it's a very important
crop for local food security forthose farmers and households
trying to grow them. Andfinally, it's a multipurpose
crop. We only think of it as thepeanuts that we like to eat. But
(06:23):
you can actually take the stemsand the leaves and feed them to
cattle. So they're importantpart of the livestock food. You
can use oil for burning, it wasthe original diesel fuel, so you
can actually use it as a fuel.
And so it's really an importantcrop for many different ways,
including as a bank account, wethink of putting money into a
bank, and then taking it outwhen we need it. But in the
(06:43):
countries that we work with, andthe households and farmers that
we work with, they actuallystore their peanuts. And then
when they have a problem like ahole in the roof or children
that needs to pay school fees,or they need to fix something or
they need to buy something in anemergency, they can sell some of
those peanuts. And so they don'treally have a bank account with
money, but they have a bankaccount with peanuts, and they
(07:05):
use that as a cash crop. It'squite important in the overall
economy and running of thehousehold. So because of all of
those components put together,it's really an important aspect,
or one of the solutions forglobal food security around the
world.
Jordan Powers (07:22):
Wow, have never thought about it in that light.
As you're talking about thenutritional benefits of peanuts,
of which there are many morethan I ever realized, how are
researchers taking advantage ofthese benefits to address food
security and benefit consumers?
Dave Hoisington (07:38):
So while peanuts are really nutritious
and healthy, and have a lot ofbenefits in terms of being able
to grow very well under undervery poor conditions, and one
might consider them a superfood,there is still a lot of research
that's needed to improve them,particularly to add traits into
the varieties that make themeven more tolerant to poor
conditions around the world.
We're learning more and moreabout the genes in peanuts that
(08:01):
make them nutritious and makethem healthy. And we want to
make sure that the varietiesthat are out there being grown
by farmers, irrespective ofwhere they are in the world,
that they're as nutritious andhealthy as possible. And so the
research really is focused onmaking sure that those varieties
of peanuts that are being grownand are made available to
(08:21):
farmers really have all of thesecharacteristics built into them.
Because that's the best way forfarmers to benefit from growing
that crop. Reduces theirdependency on other inputs,
being able to have access toirrigation, which is generally
lacking in most countries thatwe work in, but as well, inputs
like fertilizer or chemicals tokeep pests at bay. And so all
(08:44):
the research really is lookingat how do we actually make that
crop as nutritious andproductive as possible.
Emily Davenport (08:52):
Okay, so we've talked a lot about peanuts, but
I would love to talk a littlebit more about the fact that
they're not really a nut, andthat they're actually a legume,
but then you mentioned that alot of countries call them
ground nuts. So can you tell usmore about
Jordan Powers (09:09):
Demystify!
Emily Davenport (09:10):
What are they?
Dave Hoisington (09:15):
Yeah, I mean, peanut is kind of an unusual or,
as we like to call it, uniquecrop in that regard. You know,
if you've ever seen peanutsgrowing, and even though a lot
of people eat peanuts all thetime, they've never seen a
peanut plant. So they don't evenknow what it looks like. But if
(09:35):
you've ever had the chance tosee it, typically go down to
southern Georgia where there's alot of peanuts growing this time
of year, you'll notice that theflowers are all up at the top
like most plants, you see nicelittle yellow flowers on the
peanut plants. But what's kindof unique is that when those
flowers are pollinated, theyactually turn and head towards
the ground and they growunderground and mature into the
(09:58):
peanut that we know in thatlittle pod that you can buy in
the store if you buy them inshell. And so that's one reason
why in a lot of parts of theworld, they are called ground
nuts. Because they're nuts. Theylook like a nut, you crack them
open like a nut, the seed kindof looks like maybe the inside
of a seed of a nut. But they'regrowing underground. But I guess
(10:22):
when they came here, they lookedmore like a pea, which was a
very common legume here in theUS. And so they got the name
peanut because again, they looklike the pea, but they're in a
shell like a nut, you crack themopen, and it kind of tastes like
a nut. More like a nut than youwould think of if you're eating
a bean. So kind of aninteresting crop from the way
(10:45):
that they are grown, where youfind them. They are a legume, so
they're not in the family oftree nuts, like walnuts or
pecans. So they're much morelike a bean or a pea. And that's
a very important aspect becauselegumes fix nitrogen from the
atmosphere, so they have theability of of taking that
nitrogen out of the atmospherefixing it in bacteria that live
(11:09):
on their roots and then makethat nitrogen available to
themselves to grow. So theyrequire less nitrogen
fertilizer, but they can also ifyou incorporate that back in the
soil produce leave nitrogen inthe soil for a subsequent crop
like corn or wheat. So it's avery important component in soil
fertility and making sure thatwe have the right nutrients for
(11:31):
future crops.
Jordan Powers (11:33):
I wish listeners could see the look Emily and I
just gave each other. I thoughtI was, like, ahead of the game
in knowing that they grewunderground, but then the flower
turning and, what?!
Emily Davenport (11:43):
I didn't know that part. Like, wait the flour
goes underground? What?
Jordan Powers (11:47):
I have a whole new appreciation.
Emily Davenport (11:49):
I was imagining like a potato where it just grew
off like a root but it's not aroot, but wow, very cool.
Jordan Powers (11:57):
My mind's blown.
Emily Davenport (11:58):
Does their being a legume, is that part of
what makes them so nutritiousversus maybe being a nut? Or
their nitrogen fixing abilitieshelp with their nutritional
benefits at all?
Dave Hoisington (12:09):
The nitrogen fixing is more to allow them to
grow without inputs, likefertilizers and subsequent crops
really doesn't have a majoreffect on the quality of the nut
per se. The nut I think comesmore because of the hard shell
and the way you crack it open asopposed to a nutritious or
(12:31):
compositional comparison to aregular tree nut. Although
peanuts are good in that theyhave high oil content and high
protein that's highlydigestible. Peanut oil is
basically equivalent to oliveoil has a high, very high
temperature point. So you canheat it up extremely high when
you fry foods. A lot of Chinesecooking is done in peanut oil,
(12:54):
because you can fry it extremelyhot with without having it be
destroyed as a cooking oil. Sothat combination of good quality
protein and good quality oil,along with many of the other
aspects of the of the nut itselfmakes it extremely important.
And many legumes like peas andbeans are like that. They have a
(13:15):
very good composition.
Jordan Powers (13:17):
We sometimes just get too excited and have 15,000
additional questions.
Emily Davenport (13:20):
Yeah, like, "wait!"
Jordan Powers (13:21):
Hold on, there's more questions! Moving away from
the peanuts, specifically, andback to the Peanut Innovation
Lab, as we often call it forshort. We know that the Peanut
Innovation Lab just received $15million in funding from USAID
for another five years ofresearch. First of all,
congratulations. What an amazingthing. What does the additional
(13:42):
funding mean for the PeanutInnovation Lab?
Dave Hoisington (13:44):
Well, thank you for the congratulations. And of
course we're very appreciativeof USAID for approving another
five years for the PeanutInnovation Lab here at UGA. The
innovation labs that USAIDsupport are part of the US
government's Feed the Futureglobal food security strategy,
which really is all aboutworking together with partner
(14:07):
countries to help improve theirag systems and their ag sectors
in those countries, really tobreak this vicious cycle of food
insecurity, really to helppeople feed themselves. We know
we can't feed the world by justhanding out food to everyone. So
that strategy really workstowards helping people in
(14:28):
developing worlds in particular,to become more food secure for
themselves. Part of thatstrategy is through 20
innovation labs that USAIDsupports that are partnerships
between US universities andpartners here in the US and
abroad in specific countries.
University of Georgia has beenreally fortunate and and proud
(14:50):
of the fact that USAID hasalways had its peanut research
coordinated and led by theuniversity here, since its
inception in the early 1980s. Sowe're in our third or fourth or
fifth incarnation of thosefive-year funding phases. And I
think it's a good recognitionand credit to the peanut
(15:12):
expertise that's not only hereat UGA, but the importance that
peanut plays in the state ofGeorgia. And that's one reason
USAID continues to provide thefunding for the work that we do.
So we're called an InnovationLab. And I get calls all the
time from people that want tocome see my lab. Unfortunately,
it's not a physical lab, in thesense of a scientific lab, where
(15:36):
you'll see scientists working atthe bench and all of that. The
best way to picture it is wehave a set of offices in the
Hoke-Smith building on the UGAcampus where myself and my
management team sit, and webasically manage a series of
projects that are partnershipsbetween US universities, some in
the US government with USDA,some in some private sector with
(16:00):
partners overseas. And theseresearch projects work
collectively with some of ourkey countries, primarily in
Africa. We work for example, inWest Africa, in Senegal and in
Ghana, we work in east andsouthern Africa, in Uganda and
Malawi, as primary countries,but we have operations in many
(16:21):
other countries in Africa, wherepeanuts are very important part
of their food system. And thesepartnerships really are research
working on new varieties,working on better agricultural
or agronomy packages that helpfarmers grow these varieties
better or higher yields. Andthen we also look at many of the
other post-harvest processes ofhow to make sure that that
(16:43):
harvest is maintained as highquality can then be turned into
food, and other products thatthen can help address food
insecurity in these countries.
We also look at variouscomponents of gender. In many
countries around the world, andparticularly in the developing
countries, peanut is kind ofconsidered a woman's crop. It's
(17:06):
not a very commercial crop, likewe would think of it here in the
state of Georgia or in theUnited States. It's usually
grown in very small plots ofland, maybe less than one to two
acres of land in many countries.
It's often grown close to thehome, because it's a dependable
crop and it's very healthy andnutritious. And most people in
Africa in particular, recognizethat. So the women tend to grow
(17:29):
it, we have a strong focus onlooking at that gender component
to ground nut or peanutproduction in these countries to
try to understand how we makesure that the innovations that
we're producing really can beused most appropriately and
effectively by women to increasetheir production that they will
be able to achieve equitablebenefit in that production.
(17:51):
Because then they can make surethat that crop can benefit their
families and their householdsmost effectively. So in essence,
the Innovation Lab is our effortto coordinate all of this effort
that's going on to reallyaddress food security in our
target countries.
Jordan Powers (18:09):
Incredible work.
And we're fortunate to be housedin the same building here on
UGA's campus. And right when Istarted, the first time I came
up to the second floor, I waslike, there's a lab in our
building? Until I learned moreabout the work that y'all were
doing, I'm like that makes a lotmore sense.
Emily Davenport (18:24):
So much more sense.
Dave Hoisington (18:26):
Yeah, you would have to go down to Tifton, to
see many of the partnershipsthat we work with down there on
peanut research in the fields.
Or you can go over to the wildpeanut lab here on the campus
that really is looking at how wecross wild species of peanuts to
produce new peanut varieties,and really tap the genetics of
these wild species. And we workclosely with them because that
(18:47):
diversity is extremely importantto be able to use for our work
in Africa and here in the U.S.
Sound Effect (18:55):
[chime]
Emily Davenport (18:57):
We'll add a link to the wild peanut lab's
website in the show notes foryou so you can check out their
research.
Sound Effect (19:01):
[chime]
Jordan Powers (19:03):
Well, a sneak peek to 2024. We do have plans
to travel the Tifton to talksome peanuts, but we might have
to add some more things to ouritinerary.
Emily Davenport (19:11):
Yeah, there's so much cool stuff being done in
the wild peanut lab that's veryinteresting.
Jordan Powers (19:16):
This might be an impossible question to answer.
But tell us about a typical daywithin the Peanut Innovation
Lab. Is there such a thing?
Dave Hoisington (19:27):
Well, within the work that we do here in
Hoke-Smith, making sure that allthe projects are working well,
we have a little over 20different research projects that
are ongoing around the world. Wehave over 100 scientists and
students working under thoseprojects in 12 universities,
institutions here in the US. Wehave 12 countries in Africa that
(19:51):
we work with, probably over 20to 25 institutions across those
countries. So a very diverse setof partnerships that we manage.
So a lot of that is staying incontact, making sure that
progress is being made, tryingto identify new opportunities,
helping solve their problems sothat they can continue to move
(20:12):
forward with the research. Andso it's a lot of coordination.
We know how to use Zoomextremely well. The pandemic
didn't really affect our work,like it did a lot of work.
Because we were already usingvirtual communications a lot to
stay in touch. We did learn thatwe didn't have to fly all the
time to have some of thosecommunications, although it's
(20:34):
still nice to be there inperson. We also do a lot of
discussions ourselves as to whatelse we could be doing, where
would be some new ideas. Thenice thing is, it's not a
program that we define in yearone. And then we wait three or
four years and say, did we haveresults? We're continuing to
modify, innovate, look for newopportunities. Science is always
(20:58):
evolving new, new options forus. And so we try to figure out
how can we take advantage ofthat. That's our goal is to make
sure that the farmers who we'rereally working for have the best
science put towards theirproblems,
Jordan Powers (21:12):
We can kind of see being in the same space that
traveling and the back andforth, and I believe I actually
when I started emailing you toset up this conversation, I got
an out-of-office that said, Doyou want to send this during
their regular working hours thatbegin at 2am? And I said, oh,
boy!
Dave Hoisington (21:27):
That's probably one of the challenges is that
when you work around the world,they're usually working while
you're trying to sleep. So wetend to have very early or very
late meetings sometimes. But wealso get the opportunity and try
to take advantage whenever wecan to travel to this. I mean,
Zoom is good. It's nice to seepeople and talk to them. But
(21:47):
it's even better to be there onthe ground, to go out to the
fields, to talk to farmers, totalk to the households, talk to
the scientists, the students inthose countries to really
understand and help them solvetheir problems. So a lot of
travel is involved to thesedifferent countries. But that's
something that I've been doingalmost my entire career since I
left the U.S.
Jordan Powers (22:07):
Hearing your background, it's probably very
familiar ground for you.
Emily Davenport (22:10):
Yeah, definitely. Well, speaking of
traveling and the work you'redoing in Africa, how does that
research apply to peanuts in theUnited States?
Dave Hoisington (22:22):
We're focused a lot on working in Africa,
because as I said, we're lookingat increased world population,
about 15% of the world'spopulation, or about little over
1.2 billion people are inAfrica. Now as we look towards
the future as we go towards 10billion, whereas most
continents, countries aremaintaining their percentage,
(22:44):
Africa is actually going togrow, and it is projected to
double. So we're going to gofrom one to over 2 billion
people in Africa. About 800million people around the world
are malnourished, and over 60%of that is in Africa and
expected to grow. So that's onereason why a lot of the world,
USAID in particular, but manycountries around the world are
(23:07):
really focused on that continentand trying to help them improve
their ability to feedthemselves. The other
interesting thing about Africais the average age in Africa is
18 years of age. So it's a veryyoung continent, which means
that 40% or more of thepopulation is under the age of
15. And as we look towards thefuture, of course, as it doubles
(23:28):
its population, that's not frompeople moving in, that's from
childbirth. And so it's going toget younger and younger. And of
course, feeding young people isprobably one of the most
critical things to do whenthey're in those critical ages
of trying to learn and behealthy, we need good
nourishment. So that's a prettycritical component for why we
(23:49):
want to work in Africa and theUS government wants to support
food security and improve foodproduction in that continent.
And of course, peanuts, to meand to hopefully many people
around the world is an importantcrop in that strategy. Now, the
nice thing about the InnovationLab, though, is it has benefits
here in the U.S., tremendousbenefits. The scientists that we
(24:13):
work with all want to work withus and be part of the Innovation
Lab, not only because they feela kind of a commitment and
obligation to help feed theworld, but we know that the
climate is changing. There areimportant changes in temperature
and rainfall patterns. Some ofthose are happening right today
in the US, you know, where everyevery year is different here in
(24:34):
the state of Georgia. But manyof those climates, including
future climates, exist alreadyin Africa. And peanuts are being
grown there. And so they cantest ideas. They can look at how
peanuts respond to differentrainfall patterns, different
temperatures, even sometimesdifferent diseases that don't
exist yet here in the U.S., butif climate change continues the
(24:54):
way it's projected to could. Andthat gives them better ideas to
expand in their ability to studythose plants, those production
practices, under thoseenvironmental conditions that
are gonna be so importantwithout having to try to do that
here and in sometimes artificialconditions. A really, I think,
neat example that we've justrecently completed and are still
(25:16):
working on to improve comes fromdiseases. Many of the diseases
that affect peanuts here alsoexist in Africa. So that's good,
we can work together onsolutions for those. But there
is a very devastating diseasecalled groundnut rosette disease
that exists only in Africa. It'sa virus disease that's
(25:38):
transmitted by aphids. And sofar, it's only found on the
continent of Africa. But we knowfrom research we've done and
others have done that almost allthe varieties that are grown in
United States are extremelysusceptible to that disease, and
would not survive. So it's onereason we generally can't take
varieties from the US and justtake them to Africa. We have to
(26:00):
develop our own varieties there,because they need that
resistance to that disease. Sothey can withstand that, as well
as many other factors that areparticular for the continent.
What we've been able to do istake advantage of some work that
actually was coordinated here byUGA, and supported by the U.S.
peanut industry to sequence thepeanut genome. So several years
(26:22):
ago, the industry got together,scientists here at UGA led the
effort on a global partnershipthat was able to successfully
sequence the cultivated peanuts.
So we now know all the sequencesof the of the DNA in the genome
of of cultivated peanut. Byusing that and combining the
diversity of the peanuts that wesee in Africa that have the
resistance to the disease, anddon't, we were able to identify
(26:44):
the genes that are responsiblefor that resistance. And because
of that, now, we can actuallyhelp the US peanut industry
introduce that resistance intotheir varieties here to make
sure that if for whatever reasonthat disease became a problem,
or diseases similar to it becamea problem in here, we would have
resistance. So that's a really,to us, a very good example of
(27:06):
why we want to work in more of aglobal environment to take
advantage of diseases and otherpressures that we don't have
here. So scientists don't haveto leave the state to do that
research, they can send themabroad. And we can find
solutions to problems that areprobably going to hit us here at
home and be ready and beprepared. That's what reading
(27:27):
and science is all about.
Jordan Powers (27:29):
What an opportunity to help and make
change on a global scale, butthen also help right here at
home. My mind is blown by thispartnership and and the way that
it works and the way that itbenefits so many people around
the world. I have to go on alighter note, because I will
admit my tummy is rumbling andtalking about peanuts for the
(27:51):
last little bit here. So now Ihave to know, what's your
favorite way to eat a peanut,Dave?
Dave Hoisington (27:57):
I would have to say a peanut butter sandwich. I
grew up eating peanut buttersandwiches when I was a kid. I
still enjoy a good peanut buttersandwich. I've even come to
appreciate fried peanut buttersandwiches.
Emily Davenport (28:09):
Ohh.
Dave Hoisington (28:11):
I didn't know about until I moved to the state
of Georgia.
Jordan Powers (28:13):
Sounds like a very Georgian thing.
Emily Davenport (28:15):
It does. I have not yet had one of those.
Jordan Powers (28:19):
So no jelly, straight peanut butter.
Dave Hoisington (28:21):
Just straight peanut butter is fine with me.
Emily Davenport (28:23):
I like it.
Jordan Powers (28:24):
Solid choice.
Emily Davenport (28:25):
Yeah.
Dave Hoisington (28:25):
What many people don't understand or don't
don't appreciate is that in manycountries, and in Africa, in
particular, peanuts are consumedas part of the diet every day in
many different forms that wedon't appreciate or even know
about. Peanut soups, peanutsauces. Roasted peanuts are
pretty common. Peanut butter isnot that common in Africa, it's
beginning to grow as animportant food because they as
(28:49):
well understand children needsomething to take to school. And
it's kind of hard to findsomething, they don't have
refrigeration, anything likethat they don't have a microwave
in the school. And so a peanutbutter sandwich is pretty good.
It's healthy, it's got a longshelf life. So you can just take
a jar of peanut butter, make asandwich, the child can take it
(29:09):
to school and eat it and becauseof the health benefits, then
they can begin to see really animprovement in that child
education. In fact, we justcompleted a study under this
previous five-year phase innorthern Ghana, where we had a
little over 1000 school childrenin the elementary school in six
different villages eating apeanut based meal of kind of
(29:30):
peanut butter, slightlyfortified. And we fed that to
them every day during their9-month school year. And what we
found in that nine months isthat they actually improve their
learning ability significantlyby just consuming peanuts as
compared to those students whoweren't fed the same
peanut-based food. But what wasalso interesting is that all the
teachers said, but the kids aremuch more attentive. They stayed
(29:53):
awake, they weren't hungry, andthey also came to school, and
even the mothers in the villageswere appreciative of the project
because oftentimes what wouldhappen is children, one,
wouldn't want to go to school,not just because they don't want
to go to school, but why they'rehungry just going to go. Or they
would go and they would get anormal bowl of porridge as their
school meal, they eat it, butthen they were still hungry, and
(30:16):
they just go back home andthey'd say, well, now I'm
hungry, when am I going to getto eat? But yet, when you had a
very good, nutritious meal thatthey enjoyed eating, they would
go to school, they would beattentive, and they actually
were able to learn better. So avery important component of just
daily life in many of thesevillages, and in schools and
towns and communities in Africa.
Jordan Powers (30:37):
Absolutely. The power of the peanut.
Emily Davenport (30:39):
Very much so, yeah.
Dave Hoisington (30:41):
Powerful peanut.
Emily Davenport (30:42):
It is very powerful, a little legume.
Jordan Powers (30:45):
Little legume. So much power, though.
Emily Davenport (30:48):
I think I've heard something about a peanut
drink that was developed by aformer student. Is that right?
Or can you tell us more aboutthat?
Dave Hoisington (30:56):
Yes, there's been several attempts to develop
a peanut drink or even a peanutmilk, so to speak, some
generally not as successful aswe might want. We were able to
support several years ago, agraduate student and it was
actually working at the GriffinCampus in the food science
department there. He was fromMalawi. And his goal was to
(31:17):
develop a peanut drink thatwould be made out of local
ingredients that you would findin Malawi, that would basically
provide a significant portion oftheir nutritional needs for a
day. So over the four years thathe was here, he completed his
PhD a number of years ago, hestarted out by doing a survey in
the country where he found thatwhen you kind of equated what
(31:38):
would be a nutritious drink,most people thought of milk. So
if you didn't think of milk, youwould think of kind of a soft
drink, which was not consideredthat nutritious. It might be
something you would like todrink, but it wouldn't be
nutritious. So what he actuallydid was then decided that he
needed to combine milk andpeanuts together to kind of
create that beverage. So weworked on various formulations,
(32:00):
developed a very decentformulation that is quite good.
It has basically roasted peanutsas a base. So it's a combination
of peanut butter with milk,extremely nutritious. He's now
back in Malawi, at one of thenational universities, they're
working with us still to try tofigure out how we might move
that forward. But yes, peanutscan be used as a drink as well.
(32:23):
Some people can actually justcrush the peanuts themselves and
kind of press it and will alsomake a bit of a drink as well.
Roasting it usually improves theflavor a little bit. Raw peanuts
are a unique flavor. It's aninteresting crop in that too,
that it really changessignificantly if you've ever
eaten a raw peanut versus aroasted peanut, there's a
(32:45):
significant change in the way ittastes.
Jordan Powers (32:47):
I guess I never thought about that with peanuts,
because with things likecashews, you know, my pantry has
raw cashews and roasted cashews.
And I never thought about thatwith peanuts, that that's one
that you get salted or notsalted or lightly salted, or all
the flavorings but not reallyraw peanuts is something that
you see frequently available orconsumed. I do have one
additional question about peanutallergies. I know I said before
(33:07):
we started recording myhousehold consumes much higher
than the American average forpeanut butter, and that was one
of my husband's concerns when westarted a family was what if our
children are allergic topeanuts? Because it would be
very devastating with how muchwe consume personally. And we
hear a lot about peanutallergies, especially in the US.
Is this something that your teamsees a lot in your research,
(33:29):
especially internationally? Oris there a little bit of a
difference when you're workingoverseas in some of these
countries?
Dave Hoisington (33:38):
So in general, most of the countries that we
work with do not have anyproblems with peanut allergies.
In fact, in general, they'llhave very few allergies at all
to many of the food productsthat we have allergies to here
in the US or in the developedworld. The exact reason why
isn't entirely clear, there areseveral probable reasons. One is
(34:00):
in most countries, children areexposed to many things very
early on in life. It's not maybequite as a sanitized, highly
processed food environment likewe have here in the US in
particular, where everything hasto be extremely clean, extremely
processed, and therefore youdon't get exposed to many of
(34:20):
these other allergens that youreally should be so that you
prepared. Whereas in Africa,children are still playing
outside very early on. They'reeating peanuts from the time
they're born. And so you don'tsee those high levels of
allergies. Every once in a whileyou will meet someone who says
yeah, I have a bit of anallergy, but it doesn't stop me
eating peanuts. I just know howmany that I can eat before I
(34:42):
need to be kind of careful.
There's also been, of course,some change in some of the
recommendations in when youshould feed children or infants
potential allergens like milk oreggs or peanuts or nuts. And so
the original earlierrecommendations were to wait,
everybody was worried that theremight be reactions to those. Now
the recommendations is to startvery early on. And if you are a
(35:07):
family that doesn't have a lotof allergens, allergenicities to
food, probably safe to givethem, you know, an infant, some
peanut butter, as soon as youare comfortable with that, and
see how they react. Probablywill be no problem. If of
course, you have cases where youknow that there are potential
problems with certain foodproducts and categories, then
(35:29):
maybe you want to do it a littlebit more carefully or in a
doctor's office. But I think themain message is try it as you
know, expose children to thesefood products as early as
possible. And then that willbuild up their ability to
tolerate them later on in life.
I think the industry has seen asignificant decrease in the
(35:50):
levels of allergies to peanutsin the last several years. And
in fact, many schools evennowadays are beginning to
realize, again, the importanceof having peanuts as part of
their food offerings in theschools. So you're beginning to
see some of that come back upwith the realization that it's a
balance of exposure, and thenrecognizing when there is a
(36:11):
problem.
Jordan Powers (36:12):
Absolutely, addressing it when there's an
issue, but yeah.
Emily Davenport (36:16):
Well, we have covered a whole range of things,
what have we missed?
Dave Hoisington (36:21):
it's been important to point out how
important peanuts are. It's aninteresting crop that has been
around for a long time. Almosteveryone in the world has
probably consumed it at onepoint or another, in some form
or another. But we often seethat people don't understand
just like when we werediscussing many of the aspects
(36:41):
of peanuts, they don'tunderstand how important that
crop is. And that it can be animportant part of the economy,
of agricultural growth in in anycountry, but also in nourishing
people. And so, you know, to me,it's pointing out that it's
almost a magical crop that weneed to continue to recognize
and hopefully promote in overallfood security around the world.
Jordan Powers (37:04):
Absolutely.
Whether it's enjoying a peanutbutter sandwich or addressing
food security. I don't know manycrops that we could talk about
that has quite that range.
Emily Davenport (37:13):
Yeah.
Jordan Powers (37:13):
So Dave, thank you for joining us today. It has
been wonderful to talk aboutfood that is admittedly one of
my favorites, but learn so manynew things about it. And the
work that your team is doing istruly changing the world and
it's just wonderful to learnmore and share this with our
audiences. So thanks for joiningus.
Dave Hoisington (37:30):
Well, thank you.
Emily Davenport (37:30):
Thank you.
Sound Effect (37:31):
[music]
Emily Davenport (37:31):
Thanks for listening to Cultivating
Curiosity, a podcast produced bythe UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences. Aspecial thanks to Mason
McClintock for our music andsound effects. Find more
episodes wherever you get yourpodcasts.
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