Peanuts performed poorly in recent years, so prices jumped. Last year was one of the worst, in terms of supply. That attracted farmers who might otherwise have planted cotton, corn or soybeans to focus instead on peanuts.

“Farmers are one of the biggest gamblers there are,” said Randy Griggs, a former peanut farmer who is now the executive director of the Alabama Peanut Producers Association.

The laws of supply and demand are playing out.

“Now we have a ton of them, but the prices are just dropping,” Mr. Griggs said. “We’re sitting with basically no market.”

About 90 percent of homes in the United States have at least one jar of peanut butter, according to Mintel International, a market research group. The ubiquity of peanuts in the American diet became further evident this fall, when a salmonella outbreak was linked to Sunland Inc. in Portalas, N.M., the nation’s largest organic processing plant certified by the Agriculture Department. At least 35 people in 19 states fell ill, prompting the recall of more than 400 products, including raw peanuts, energy bars and peanut butter sold in stores like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

Despite the recall, there is still a record supply of peanuts on the market, which means farmers will not see high prices to match their yields.