{"id":37083,"date":"2021-02-12T11:35:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T11:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=498866"},"modified":"2021-02-12T11:35:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T11:35:01","slug":"forget-peanuts-george-washington-carvers-environmental-legacy-is-the-real-story-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/12\/forget-peanuts-george-washington-carvers-environmental-legacy-is-the-real-story-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget peanuts. George Washington Carver\u2019s environmental legacy is the real story."},"content":{"rendered":"
In the aftermath of the Civil War, the Southeast needed a healer — someone to give back at least a little of what slavery had taken from the land and the people. Black scientist George Washington Carver stepped into that role and, in the process, revolutionized farming as we know it.<\/p>\n
Most Americans remember him simply as the \u201cPeanut Man,\u201d summarizing his life\u2019s work with what was, arguably, his least important accomplishment. Oh, sure, Carver did discover around 300 uses for peanuts, from soap to wood stains to cooking oil \u2014 but those things were almost beside the point. He didn\u2019t set out to create new kinds of milk and paper, and, to be fair, many of his inventions never took off. (Despite misconceptions, peanut butter is not in his portfolio.) The legume played a supporting role in his bigger mission: helping Black farmers throughout the South grow enough food to sustain their families and free themselves from the oppression of sharecropping.<\/p>\n
That noble cause led Carver to develop farming methods that increased crop yields, safeguarded ecological health, and revitalized soil ravaged by the overproduction of cotton, the linchpin of the South\u2019s economy. No less importantly, Carver devoted much of his life to teaching formerly enslaved people how to use those techniques to achieve a measure of independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarver was one of the founders of the modern organic movement, which has changed the face of agriculture and will continue to in the future if we want to have a hospitable planet,\u201d says Leah Penniman<\/a>, a 2019 Grist 50 Fixer, co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm<\/a> in Petersburg, New York, and a student of Carver\u2019s work. \u201cFlattening him to just a pinup with a peanut in an elementary school corridor does not do him justice.\u201d<\/p>\n Monuments and colleges bear Carver\u2019s name, yet few textbooks offer a full picture of his remarkable accomplishments, let alone address the political motivations behind his work. But recognizing them underscores the fact that the fight for environmental justice is not new, and we can learn crucial lessons from its past leaders.<\/p>\n George Washington Carver was born into slavery during the Civil War, although the exact year remains something of a mystery. His father was killed before his birth, and Confederate slave raiders kidnapped his mother, whom he never saw again, when he was an infant. Carver grew up in a variety of homes before leaving Missouri at 11 to attend school in Kansas. The one constant in his life was an abiding love of botany. Carver learned about gardening and herbal medicine from each of the women who cared for him, and he often spent his days collecting herbs and flowers and experimenting with natural pesticides and fertilizers. He was soon renowned for curing sick crops and houseplants, leading people to call him the \u201cplant doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n His talents led him to Iowa State Agricultural School, where he earned a master’s in agriculture in 1896. His research on fungal infections in soybeans impressed Booker T. Washington<\/a>, who founded what is now known as Tuskegee University in Alabama. Washington invited Carver to help start its agricultural school, where he became a beloved professor. Still, Carver\u2019s passion lay beyond the classroom: He wanted to liberate Black farmers from a system designed to keep them dependent upon white landowners.<\/p>\nFarming for liberation<\/strong><\/h3>\n