SPFF News & Resources

Peanut growers have experienced a lot of changes in the various farm bills that have been passed over the years and farmers overall have seen support for them within the bill continue to shrink.

“The commodity piece of the farm bill has been sliding for a number of years, and you can see, if you look at the 2018 bill, what we face today, it’s only five percent of the entire farm bill, and that’s very frustrating when growers are in the trouble they’re in today,” said long-time peanut industry lobbying Bob Redding at the 2025 Southeastern Peanut Growers Conference.

The One Big Beautiful Bill did provide funding for farm programs, according to Redding. “The safety net piece to this is $66 billion, … and this is really, really important across the board,” said Redding. “This is a bill that’s not going to cure everything. It’s not going to save everybody, but it does allow some predictability.”

Listen to Redding’s remarks:
Bob Redding, The Redding Firm (9:34)

2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference photo album

The first general session panel at the 2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference focused on the pesticide strategy recently finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency and the ramifications for the peanut industry.

The panel featured Dr. Taylor Singleton, University of Georgia; Dr. Mark Abney, University of Georgia; and Dr. Wilson Faircloth, Syngenta.

Dr. Singleton says EPA has developed a new framewors for evaluating pesticides in regards to endangered species compliance.
“So right now there’s a lot of conversation and new regulations that have come up recently regarding endangered species and pesticide use. And so we’re helping growers understand these new regulations. What’s going on, what changes we’re going to see on labels moving into the future, but also trying to help growers understand,” she said.

Dr. Abney says at this point, all of the good soil insecticides have been banned and that is a challenge for the industry to find replacements. “It costs so much, it takes so long, and then for soil insecticides to be good, they need to be broad spectrum which means kill different insects, they have to last a long time, which has long residual and those are not usually things that help you get registration with EPA. They want more selective products that don’t last as long,” said Abney.

Representing the crop chemical industry, Faircloth talked about the process of getting a new product to market. “From a basic manufacturer’s perspective like Syngenta or any other, I wanted to paint a picture of a couple of things. Number one, let’s talk about the cost of doing business and the time that it takes is this extremely long time, at least 10 years now from discovery to being able to sell a product. The costs are approaching, you know $300 to $400 million per active ingredient to get those into the marketplace and then of course, negotiating the regulatory hurdles is a big part of what we do in a big part of that cost as well.”

Listen to interviews with all of the panelists below.

Dr. Taylor Singleton, University of Georgia (3:26)

Dr. Mark Abney, University of Georgia (5:04)

Dr. Wilson Faircloth, Syngenta (2:58)

2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference photo album

The 2025 Farm Press Peanut Efficiency Award winners were recognized at the Southern Peanut Growers Conference.

The 26th Class of PEA winners are:
Upper Southeast – Brian and Adam Darden, Newsoms, Va. (not present)
Lower Southeast – Riley Davis, Terrell County, Ga.
Delta – Atkins Farm, Hamilton, Miss.
Southwest – Brent Hendon, Welch, Texas

Alan and Jamie Dean Atkins, Riley Davis, and Brent Hendon joined Dr. Marshall Lamb on stage to take questions from peanut growers eager to get some tips on improving efficiency on the farm. Listen to the conversation here:

PEA Winners Panel (44:38)

2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference photo album

During the Southern Peanut Growers Conference, Congressman G.T. Thompson, House Ag Chair, participated in today’s general session. He talked about the farm bill which he described as provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill as version 1.0. He talks about the process and what this provisions mean to farmers and particularly peanut growers. He also met with several ag media who asks questions.

Remarks from Congressman G. T. Thompson (29:57)

Press Conference with Congressman G. T. Thompson (12:00)

2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference photo album

This year, we have two Valor Award winners who model the definition of Valor, which means “great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.” Again this year, Valent’s John Alton, presented the awards.

The first 2025 Valor Award recipient is John Powell and you can listen to his remarks below.
 
John retired as Executive Director of the American Peanut Shellers Association in August 2024, after a 38-year tenure leading the organization. In recognition of his contributions to the peanut industry, Powell was inducted into the APSA Hall of Fame. Prior to retirement, Powell also served as President of The Peanut Institute since its incorporation in 1996. Additionally, he was the President of The Peanut Institute Foundation. John was a founding member of the United States Peanut Federation and served on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Remarks from John Powell (4:03)

The second 2025 Valor Award winner is Ken Barton and you can listen to his remarks below.

Ken retired as Executive Director of the Florida Peanut Producers Association in March 2025, after 23 years of leading the organization. Throughout his career, Ken was a strong advocate for peanut growers in Florida and across the nation, working to strengthen the peanut industry through research, promotion, and education. His efforts have left a meaningful impact on the industry.

Remarks from Ken Barton (3:21)

Peanut growers and industry representatives from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi and now South Carolina are in Panama City Beach, FL this week for the 2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference.

Leaders of the state organizations, pictured here, gave us an update on the condition of their crops this year and what they peanut farmers are expecting as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been passed.

Listen to comments from each state director below.

Libbie Johnson, Alabama Peanut Producers Association (1:53)
Brittany Greene, Florida Peanut Producers Association (2:40)
Don Koehler, Georgia Peanut Commission (5:31)
Malcolm Broome, Mississippi Peanut Growers Association (2:14)
Katherine Helms, South Carolina Peanut Board (2:43)

2025 Southern Peanut Growers Conference Photo Album