system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is peanut butter half the price of actual peanuts if it takes more effort to produce it?
gpt
You assume the peanuts that go into a jar of peanut butter are the same ones that go into a bag of peanuts. They're not. 

The food that you buy whole (e.g. peanuts, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries) are the best of the crop. The food that you buy processed into some other form (e.g. peanut butter, tomato sauce, tater tots, strawberry jam) are the small or bruised or misshapen or damaged parts of the crop. The appearance or condition doesn't matter because it's not going to retain that form when processed anyway. 

People will pay more for nicely formed, pretty produce. So the stuff you buy whole in the supermarket (or _lightly_ processed, like a jar of roasted nuts) is more expensive than the produce that goes into highly processed foods (where highly processed = it doesn't retain any of it's original shape or form).