Shell Shock! The Peanut War Targets Safeco Field

Peanut butter and jelly.  The cornerstone of every child's lunch. 

At least, it used to be.

When I was a kid, I couldn't get enough PB&J.  Two slices of white bread with the crust still attached, a smooth bed of peanut butter on both slices, followed by a goopy layer of raspberry jelly that oozed out of the sandwich with every bite.   A thing of beauty that fit perfectly in to my Dukes of Hazard lunchbox.

Good luck trying to slip your kid a penut butter and jelly sandwich these days. Sometime in the last two decades, peanut allergies exploded in to the spotlight, capturing headlines in every major city.  Peanut butter has become public enemy number one throughout every public school system in North America.  Battle lines have been drawn and the war against the peanut is expanding.

The latest war on the peanut has hit the sleepy, Starbucks-fuelled city of Seattle, specifically Safeco Field.

On August 5th and September 9th, two sections or 150 seats, will be thoroughly cleaned of any lingering peanut particles and open to any one with a peanut allergy.  The concession stand in those sections will not sell peanuts or any product containing peanuts. 

As well, there will be a designated entrance for, and peanut-free path to, those sections.

Pardon the pun, but has the world gone nuts?

Not to make light of any one who suffers from a peanut allergy but at what point do we start accommodating the minority and at expense of the majority? 

I guess we already have.

No longer do airlines serve peanuts, no way do schools allow so much as a hint of peanut butter on their premises and now, Safeco Field has designated a peanut-free area for two games.

Sure, it's only two games, two sections and a mere 150 seats. How long, though, before a complete peanut ban is put in place - across the majors, minors et al - to accommodate the 12-million Americans who have a peanut allergy? 

A peanut ban doesn't mean just peanuts, by the way.  That would also include Cracker Jacks, ice creams, pretzels, chocolate bars, just about anything with peanuts in the ingredient list.

In this politically correct, lawsuit-happy world of ours, God forbid we offend any one because there happens to be a small group of people who are allergic to peanuts. I know it's not easy to deal with the allergy but that's exactly what you have to do.  I know someone who is deathly allergic to eggs but he's not demanding that McDonald's do away with the Egg McMuffin. 

Why, as a fan of the legume, am I made out to be a bad guy because I want some Planters on the plane or want to crack open a peanut shell in the bleachers?

The bigger question in all of this is why have peanut allergies reached epidemic proportions in North America in the first place?

Between 1997 and 2002, the number of peanut allergies doubled in the United States.  One can only assume a similar situation in Canada, as well.  One can also assume that the number continues to grow.  Meanwhile, in places like China and India, peanut allergies are almost unheard of. 

Answer that question and perhaps we won't have to implement peanut bans at baseball stadiums and hockey arenas or Dukes of Hazard lunchboxes.