Learn more about a botanist, George Washington Carver from Emmanuel Perrodin-Njoku! What do you know about The Peanut Man?This is video 3/6 from Emmanuel on different Black STEMists
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Transcript: George Washington Carver was born a slave and became one of the most regarded botanists of his time. He got his botanical studies degree at Iowa State Agricultural College in 1894, then his Master of Agriculture degree in 1896, and was then hired to run Tuskegee Institute’s agricultural department. Carver gained international attention for his work, which included: teaching revolutionary crop rotation methods using soil chemistry to increase crop yields, developing a mobile classroom which allowed him to teach farmers at their farms, researching new uses for existing crops, and promoting the replacement of expensive farming practices with less expensive alternatives. His work had a significant impact on current crop-growing techniques and positively influenced many Black farmers during his time. Now, you might know Mr. Carver as “the Peanut Man.” Why is that? Well, the crop rotation technique he developed led to high yields of cotton, which many farmers enjoyed, but there was an unintended consequence: there was a surplus of peanuts and other non-cotton products. So, Carver went on to find numerous alternative uses for these products, for example, using sweet potatoes to make edible products like flour and vinegar and non-food products like dyes, paints, and writing ink. However, Carver’s biggest success came from peanuts, with which he developed more than 300 food, industrial, and commercial products: milk, Worcestershire sauce, cooking and salad oils, paper, cosmetics, soaps, and wood stains, to name a few. He even experimented with peanut-based medicines for antiseptic and laxative use, as well as goiter (swelling of the neck due to an enlarged thyroid gland) medication. In 1921, Carver appeared before the US House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the peanut industry, which was seeking tariff protection by implementing a tax on imported peanuts. His testimony started off rough, but when he started to explain the wide range of products that could be made from peanuts, he earned praise from the committee and got them to approve a protected tariff for peanuts… as well earning the moniker “The Peanut Man.”
