Jimmy Carter, the 39th President and the most famous peanut farmer in the world, has died at the age of 100.
He was born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, a small farming town. His father, James Earl Carter was also a farmer. After his father’s death in 1946, he took over the family business, Carter farms, and operated Carter’s Warehouse, a seed and farm supply company in the town he grew up in.
He was inducted into the Georgia Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2018 and was the first president ever to receive that honor. At the time, he called it the highlight of his career in agriculture. He told the University of Georgia his position as President helped him form ag policy at home and abroad.
Carter’s presidency did not come without controversy in the ag industry, though. The 1977 Farm Bill was adjusted to where commodity prices fell far below the cost of production. That led in part to the large farm protests in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Days before his death, he asked that President Biden deliver his eulogy.
