DATE: Tuesday, July 8, 1997                 TAG: 9707080240

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY PAT DOOLEY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:  121 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** A headline and display quote on the Business News front Tuesday incorrectly referred to peanut growers seeking a better image for their product. The Peanut Institute is a group of peanut processors. Correction published Wednesday, July 9, 1997. ***************************************************************** IN A NUTSHELL, GROWERS SEEK A BETTER IMAGE

Like others in the peanut industry, Jeffrey B. Johnson has watched sales plummet, companies consolidate or close, and longtime farmers turn to more profitable crops over the years.

People think of peanuts as ``nothing more than fat encased in a shell,'' says Johnson, an executive with Birdsong Peanuts in Suffolk. ``There is a perception that peanuts are junk food.''

Now Johnson is helping lead a national industry effort to crack that nut. He's president of the Peanut Institute, a group that has begun to marshal a small but growing body of research casting the tan-shelled legumes in a positive light.

The stakes are high.

Consumption of peanuts and peanut products has dipped about 20 percent since the late '80s, and the whole industry - including growers, processors and manufacturers in Virginia and North Carolina - has felt the crunch.

Last year, farmers in Virginia and North Carolina planted about 76,000 acres of the nuts, down from about 104,000 in recent years.

And more nuts are being imported, under trade agreements such as NAFTA. The nuts often cost less than those produced in the United States, where the government pays farmers a support price for peanuts not sold, says Russell C. Schools, program director for the governor-appointed Virginia Peanut Board.

Sales of peanut products fell from 1.1 million tons in 1989 to 0.92 million tons in 1996, says Mitch Head, executive director of the Georgia-based Peanut Advisory Board. That represents a loss of about $117 million, he says.

Sobered by these trends, the nation's processors last year formed the Peanut Institute to counter the peanut's reputation as a villain.

The institute is based in Georgia, the nation's top peanut-producing state. But its president, Johnson, lives and works in Suffolk, where about 87,500 tons of peanuts were shelled last year.

``Consumers think peanuts are not good for you,'' says Johnson, senior vice president and director of sales at Birdsong Peanuts, which processes about 1 million pounds of peanuts a day at its Suffolk plant. ``We knew the opposite was the case - that they are good for you.''

Early rumblings that peanuts could be healthy for the heart were heard around 1989, when an independent study of 65 foods at Loma Linda University in California showed a 50 percent drop in cardiovascular disease among 30,000 Seventh-day Adventists who ate a handful of nuts - mostly peanuts - about five times a week.

The Loma Linda researchers suggested the peanut industry conduct its own controlled studies to further the connection.

The industry - healthy at the time and unable to foresee America's obsession with dietary fat - declined.

``It was obviously a big mistake,'' says Johnson. A mistake the Peanut Institute hopes to avoid repeating.

Recently, for example, it helped fund a study that showed peanuts contain resveratrol - the compound touted in red wine and purple grape juice for its association to reduced risk of heart disease.

Tim Sanders, a plant physiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research service at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has studied peanuts for more than 20 years. He'd already been looking for a resveratrol-peanut connection when U.S. shellers asked him last year to delve further.

Sanders and co-researcher Robert W. McMichael found about 73 micrograms of resveratrol in an ounce - a handful - of peanuts.

``That is not much,'' Sanders concedes. A 5-ounce glass of red wine, for example, contains 800 micrograms. But resveratrol is ``one piece of the puzzle with peanuts,'' Sanders says.

Peanuts are cholesterol-free. They contain protein, fiber, folic acid, vitamin E and minerals including iron and magnesium.

And, yes, fat. But it's mostly unsaturated - the good fat associated with lowered risk for heart disease, Johnson says.

To try to capitalize on these assets, the institute is working with universities around the country. For example:

At Purdue, researchers are examining the effects of peanuts on satiety. Some evidence suggests that peanuts may help create a feeling of fullness, and - contrary to popular belief - not contribute to weight gain, Johnson says.

At Penn State, researchers are looking at peanuts and reduced blood cholesterol.

At North Carolina State, Sanders is studying the nuts for saponins, cancer-fighting compounds found in soybeans.

Johnson says it's likely to be six months before any studies are conclusive.

In the meantime, the institute is spreading its efforts around, like so many layers of peanut butter and jelly on white bread.

Last month, it was instrumental in pulling together about 500 shellers, growers, manufacturers and others in the industry for their first Peanut Congress, in Amelia, Fla.

It's too early to tell how many consumers will add peanuts to their grocery lists or what the campaign might mean to Virginia, the nation's seventh-largest peanut producer.

But U.S. consumers may already be shopping with a new attitude, Johnson says. A 1996 Gallup poll showed consumers' concern about fat dropped 5 percent from the previous year. Interest in choosing foods for vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and other healthful attributes rose 12 percent.

``A few years ago, people were avoiding foods they considered unhealthy,'' Johnson says. ``Now, they're looking for foods that have positive benefits.''

In April, consumption of peanut butter was up 3.5 percent from April 1996, says Bob Sutter, executive director of the North Carolina Peanut Growers Association.

Peanut snacks - such as cocktail nuts in cans - were up 7 percent. And in-shell nuts, 95 percent of which come from Virginia and North Carolina, rose 22 percent.

Johnson, who eats peanuts nearly every day, is optimistic.

``We've got a great opportunity now,'' he says. ``People like peanuts. People want to eat peanuts.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MICHAEL KESTNER/The Virginian-Pilot

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