Chemistry in a Peanutshell

A well-known saying goes: "Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime." The work done by George Washington Carver to improve the livelihood of African American farmers in the post-Civil War U.S. is a perfect embodiment of this ideology.

Carver, himself a child of slavery, overcame amazing obstacles to pursue his education, develop new farming practices, create useful products from little-known crops, and share his research findings with impoverished farmers. In honor of his achievements, the American Chemical Society dedicated Carver's work as a National Historic Chemical Landmark during a ceremony at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Jan. 27, in conjunction with the university's 6th Annual George Washington Carver Convocation.

Southern farming in the late 1800s was dominated by cotton, which depleted nutrients in the soil and required the use of expensive fertilizers that most sharecroppers could not afford. Carver became famous for introducing the practice of crop rotation: alternating cotton crops with soil-enriching plants known as legumes. These plants, he found, have a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms that live in their root nodules and can convert nitrogen from the air into biologically useful ammonia.

Carver demonstrated that planting legumes in depleted soils dramatically increased crop yield without fertilizers. His findings, along with later work on applications for legume crops, introduced new varieties of useful plants such as soybeans and sweet potatoes to Southern farmers and consumers.

"Carver's work pointed the way to diversification in agriculture in a region all too dependent in the past on one crop," said former ACS president Eli M. Pearce, who presented the landmark plaque to Tuskegee University President Benjamin F. Payton.

Carver is most famous for elevating one legume in particular--the humble peanut--into a national culinary icon. He developed more than 300 food, industrial, and commercial products from this simple seed, ranging from milk to oil to face cream. Today, according to the National Peanut Board, peanuts contribute more than $4 billion each year to the U.S. economy.

DURING THE award presentation, Pearce praised Carver for his innovative application of chemical techniques to agriculture. "George Washington Carver practiced multidisciplinary science before anyone knew what it meant," Pearce said. "It is fitting that this award should go to a chemist who a century ago understood that the best science utilizes and interacts with many disciplines."

Speakers at the event also noted that Carver achieved success as a scientist in the face of overwhelming adversity. Born near the end of the Civil War, Carver was raised by the Missouri farmers who had owned his mother as a slave. He was a frail child who helped mostly with domestic chores.

Carver's desire for an education prompted him to move farther west, where he was accepted at a Kansas university, sight unseen. When he arrived to enroll, he was turned away by university officials, who proclaimed that they had never admitted an African American and never would. Undaunted, Carver moved through various communities working as a laborer and attending school when he could.

Carver was 30 years old when he enrolled at Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa, a Methodist school that accepted all qualified applicants regardless of race or ethnicity. Although he showed talent in music and art, Carver most wanted to help other African Americans who were struggling to make a living as sharecroppers. He decided to enroll at Iowa State College to study agricultural chemistry, earning his master's degree in 1896.

Shortly after graduating, Carver was invited to join the faculty at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). In addition to his teaching and research, Carver designed a traveling demonstration wagon and issued bulletins to teach farmers who could not come to the institute about his new techniques and the uses for legumes. True to his mission to improve the lives of the poor, Carver shared knowledge freely and never sought patents on any of his new processes and products.

In 1921, Carver testified before the House Ways & Means Committee on the many uses of the peanut, earning his signature crop important tariff protection and cementing his legacy as the father of the peanut industry.

In addition to the landmark award presentation, Tuskegee's Payton presented Isiah M. Warner, professor of analytical and environmental chemistry at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, with the 2005 George Washington Carver Achievement Award to honor the work he has done improving graduate science education for minorities.

"I wonder in amazement, how did such a man accomplish so much despite the shackles of slavery?" Warner told the crowd during his acceptance speech. "How much more could this man have accomplished if he'd had the same opportunities as his fellow countrymen?"

"The obstacles Carver faced would have frustrated almost anyone," Pearce said. "But imagine if Carver had not persisted. We can never know the might-have-beens or the what-would-have-beens in history, but it is certainly likely that George Washington Carver would have lived out his life in the Midwest as a day laborer." Without Carver's tenacity, the development of U.S. agriculture would surely have taken a different path.