George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver's background

Born a slave of Moses and Susan Carver in 1861, during the Civil War, George Washington Carver grew up on a plantation in Missouri. According to the National Park Service, his burning desire for education was fed by a strong natural curiosity. Carver enjoyed reading, studying, and drawing plants and animals. He studied and worked at Iowa Agricultural College, now Iowa State University, and later became a professor and head of agriculture at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Ala., where he worked for 47 years. Carver willed his life's earnings to Tuskegee. He died Jan. 5, 1943. His legacy continues in the Carver Museum and the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee University. 

Carver was a great scientist and a renowned agricultural chemist. His research in botany, bacteriology and chemistry, along with his inventions at Iowa State University and Tuskegee Institute, had a positive, far-reaching impact on the scientific community, farmers, community members and policy makers. He demonstrated that crop rotation could be both economical and sustainable. 

 Much arable land could be conserved by rotating from planting cotton, which depletes soil of its nutrients, to planting peanuts and other legumes such as soybeans. Legumes have root systems that contain "good bacteria" called Rhizobium that provide the plants with usable nitrogen. Rhizobium and similar bacteria provide about 200 million metric tons of nitrogen each year (Starr and Taggart, Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life)! This natural nutrient reduces the need for commercial fertilizer. 

 Current research by Iowa State agronomy professor Dr. Ricardo Salvador indicates that a farmer can reduce dependence on nitrogen fertilizer while producing a nitrogen-intensive crop such as maize. 

 Today, crop rotation is widely used, according to Dr. Jim Frederick, a crop physiologist at Clemson University Pee Dee Research and Education Center. Researchers are developing cropping systems that will improve soil quality, crop productivity, and environmental conservation. For example, we are investigating the combined effects of rotation, conservation tillage, and double cropping on management of pests (insects, diseases, and weeds) in soybean and cotton production. 

 Carver devoted his life to research connected primarily to Southern agriculture, but his work continues to have an impact in the South and around the world. History shows that he was the person most responsible for the economic survival of the farm economy in the southern United States. That economy was in deep trouble. As farmers were scratching their heads to figure out why the boll weevil picked their farms to destroy the cotton, Carver developed alternatives to conventional farming. He also developed Carver's Hybrid cotton, a more resilient strain of the plant. These alternatives were not only economically sound, but also environmentally friendly.

Peanuts and sweet potatoes

Carver also ensured social acceptability for his research by using his knowledge of chemistry to develop many uses of the peanut and the sweet potato. Recently, I reviewed two of his experiment station publications. The first, published in June 1925, is titled "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption." Among the 14 major points he made to justify production and consumption of the peanut were "Like all other members of the pod-bearing family, they enrich the soil" and "The peanut exerts a dietetic or a medicinal effect upon the human system that is very desirable." 

Today, the United States is first in edible peanut production and third in total world peanut production behind India and China, according to the S.C. Peanut Board. Major pest problems of peanuts include diseases such as tomato spotted wilt virus, white mold and leaf spot, as well as weeds and insect pests such as the lesser cornstalk borer, according to Dr. Jay Chapin, professor of entomology at Clemson University Edisto Research and Education Center. 

 Peanuts are quite nutritious. They are 26 percent protein, 48 percent fatty acids, 20 percent carbohydrates, 2.5 percent fiber, and 3.5 percent water, vitamins, and minerals. They have no cholesterol because they're from plants, and they are high in B-Vitamins and contain Vitamin E. A peanut butter sandwich contains all eight of the essential amino acids.

Of Carver's original recipes, this is one of my favorites for a quick and nutritious salad or snack. Peanut Salad with Bananas: Slice bananas through center; spread out on lettuce leaves, and sprinkle liberally with chopped peanuts; serve with mayonnaise or plain salad dressing. Today, I would suggest serving with yogurt.

The second experiment station bulletin, published in 1936, is titled, "How the Farmer can Save his Sweet Potatoes - and Ways of Preparing Them for the Table." Carver reported that after 15 years of no commercial fertilizer on three acres of land where mulch compost and proper rotation were applied, yields were 215 bushels of sweet potatoes per acre. Dr. Carver addressed the major pest problem (fungus diseases) by rotating and avoiding planting slips from a diseased sweet potato bed, and avoiding the use of seed sweet potatoes from fields with diseased tubers. Major pest problems today include weeds, insects such as wireworms, and diseases such as fusarium, according to Dr. Janice Bohac, a sweet potato breeder at USDA-ARS, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston.

Today, the leading state in sweet potato production is North Carolina (29 percent of all sweet potatoes produced in the nation), followed by Louisiana, Mississippi and California (National Sweet Potato Newsletter, Winter 2003). Less than 1 percent of commercial sweet potato production is in South Carolina.

There are many ways to prepare the sweet potato. Carver indicated slow baking or cooking under fire coals enhances the rich flavor. Other recipes he offered are becoming more and more popular, including fried sweet potatoes and sweet potato chips. Food and Society Policy Fellow Keecha Harris, MPH, RD, states, "As with any fried food, try to balance these variations on sweet potatoes with low-fat options such as baked or grilled meat and steamed green leafy vegetables. Sweet potatoes are a naturally sweet root rich in beta-carotene, Vitamins C and B6, folate, potassium, and fiber. We should try to incorporate them more into our diets." Taking nutritional value and enhancement of Southern agriculture under consideration, I hope we will see more restaurants with sweet potatoes on the menu. Two websites for delicious sweet potato recipes are 1) www.prevention.com/links and 2) www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/recipe.htm.