Building on our Past to Engineer the Future

The art of engineering has had a major impact on agricultural production. Agricultural mechanization has been cited as one of the twenty most significant fetes of engineering in the 20th century. As we look through the titles of articles published in Peanut Science since its inception in 1974, we can see the breadth of engineering research and innovation that has impacted the peanut industry ranging from land preparation and seed handling to produce the crop to innovations in irrigation, harvesting, curing, storing, shelling, and transportation. While engineers have made significant impacts on the peanut industry during the 50-yr existence of the American Peanut Research and Education Society, they have not made those innovations in a vacuum, but have attacked problems with multidisciplinary teams that involved the expertise of agronomists, pathologists, entomologists, food scientists, and economists just to name a few. This article highlights some of the engineering innovations made in the peanut industry during the past 50 yr and looks ahead at what engineering obstacles must be overcome in the next 50 yr.