2016-03-14 03:30:46
Minding your Peas in the Quest for Protein
originating in southeast asia, high-protein peas were among the world’s first domesticated crops. in Montana, peas were a major cash crop in several counties throughout the 1940s before all but disappearing for more than 40 years due to severe disease outbreaks. today, dried peas have been rediscovered as an excellent protein source.
While peas are also grown in colorado, Kansas and north dakota, Montana leads the U.s. in production, which has increased at an average rate of 22 percent per year from 1998 to 2012. “Pea acres have gone from practically zero to 600,000 acres. fallowed land is being planted to peas and is yielding 1 ton per acre,” says al dombek, cHs product line manager. the crop trades for $200 to $300 per ton.
a leading U.s. shipper, cHs recently transported 37,000 tons of peas to india, says dombek. Vessels ship through Kalama and tacoma, Wash., and can be co-loaded with wheat to markets such as india, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which have populations that don’t include meat in their diets, so are perfect markets for dried peas and other plant proteins.
— Joel Schettler
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