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Government help has two aspects. First, import controls effectively bar processors from buying peanuts from such other countries as India and Brazil. More important, farmers can legally grow peanuts only on Government-set acreage allotments—and any peanuts that processors do not want to buy can, in effect, be sold to the Government at artificially high prices. This year's support price, scheduled to be announced next month, is expected to go as high as $415 a ton, v. a world price of $250. Each year the Government buys up huge amounts of peanuts; last year it purchased about 30% of the entire crop. This crop year, the Government's support operation has cost taxpayers $200 million directly, plus many millions more in high prices for peanut products (the average retail price of a 12-oz. jar of peanut butter jumped from 54.7¢ in 1973 to 70.4¢ in 1975).
Butz and others have been pressing to plow under the peanut program. To head off that eventuality, Representative Dawson Mathis of Georgia has recently introduced a compromise bill that would reduce acreage allotments by 22.5% and pare support prices slightly. The showdown could come next year when Congress votes on a new general agriculture bill. If the nation's best-known peanut farmer—who has indicated that he favors lower price supports —is then occupying the White House, it will be interesting to see what recommendations come from the Oval Office.