Jimmy Carter, the last U.S. president to have been a farmer, died Sunday surrounded by his family at his home in Plains, Ga., at the age of 100, the Carter Center announced.

Carter’s journey from a small farm to the White House was a testament to the potential within every American, Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau president, said in a statement.

“We appreciate the perspective his rural roots brought to the White House and his post-presidential work to fight food insecurity and teach modern farming practices to developing countries,” Duvall said.

Carter grew up on his father’s peanut farm and resigned from the Navy when his father died in 1953 to take over the farm, according to the Carter Center.

Carter was elected Georgia governor in 1970. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter were photographed beaming on election night. A New York newspaper captioned the photo, “Goober-Natorial Smiles.”

Carter’s campaign for president in 1976 highlighted his farming background. Until he was elected governor, he worked 12-hour days during harvests, according to one campaign ad. “Can you imagine any of the other candidates for president working in the hot August sun?” the narrator asked.

On the campaign trail, Carter said he looked forward to firing Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz. Carter accused Butz of favoring corporate farms over family farms. “If I’m elected president, the first thing I’m going to do is send Earl Butz back where he came from,” Carter said.

Butz fired back. “Jimmy Carter has grown fat from federal peanut subsidies for years, and I’m going to bust him,” Butz said.

Carter initially denied receiving any subsidies, though USDA said the Carter family farm received price-support payments in 1971 and 1973 totaling $2,728, the equivalent of $20,210 today.

The Atlanta Constitution reported peanut farmers were worried about the price-support program getting tangled up in presidential politics. “I don’t see how (Carter’s) running can help the peanut program any,” a farmer said.

Butz resigned before Election Day because of racist remarks he made in private, but were leaked to the press. Carter said President Ford lacked leadership and should have fired Butz, instead of letting him resign.

Carter also criticized the Ford and Nixon administrations for imposing grain embargoes on the Soviet Union and Poland.

“Every time Nixon, Ford and Butz have imposed a new export embargo, it has caused permanent damage to foreign markets for farm products,” Carter said at the Iowa State Fair.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, President Carter canceled corn, wheat and soybean sales to the USSR. “While this invasion continues, we and other nations of the world cannot conduct business as usual with the Soviet Union,” he said.

Carter’s reelection campaign defended the embargo. A farmer said in a Carter campaign ad, “What monies we might have lost really is a pretty cheap price to pay for freedom really.”

As a candidate, Ronald Reagan criticized the embargo and as president lifted it in 1981.

The USDA Economic Research Service in 1986 concluded the embargo barely changed U.S. and world trade levels, but did alter trade flows. The Soviet Union bought grain from Argentina, Australia, Canada and Europe.

“The United States clearly received less than full cooperation from other exporters, and USSR meat consumption did not decline by the amount the CIA predicted,” USDA reported. “Demand for U.S. agricultural exports also weakened in the years after the embargo, placing pressure on farm incomes.”

Carter put his peanut farm in a blind trust while he was president. The farm was in debt when he left the White House, and the ex-president was forced to sell it.

Carter had been the first farmer to become president since Harry Truman.