Though Jimmy Carter served as President, Georgia's governor, in Georgia's General Assembly, and as a naval officer, he was also known as a peanut farmer. Carter ran his family's Plains, Georgia-based peanut farm after his father passed away, but once he was in the White House, he left the peanut business altogether for this reason.

When Carter became president in 1977, he had a controlling stake in Carter Farms, but sold all his personal stocks and put his interest in Carter Warehouse and Carter Farms into a blind trust. The farm was left to his brother, Billy, and his management decisions (paired with other factors) negatively impacted the business.

Carter said this decision was to guarantee "whatever happens here in Plains, based on my decisions concerning agriculture, will not affect my income one way or the other," per the New York Times. When his term ended in 1981, the farm had a debt of $1 million, and was then purchased by an agricultural processing company in Illinois.