The Mendocino Beacon, September 19, 1991, in a piece by Tony Miksak, owner of the Gallery Bookshop and Bookwinkle's:

Publishers have discovered that plastic "peanuts" are a quick and cheap way to fill in the gaps around books before shipping... Some mornings I stand on the Kasten Street sidewalk listening to the surf and watching the odd peanut or two blow down the street toward the Mendecino Bay. I wonder if a Brown Pelican, California Gull, Brandt's Cormorant, Common Loon, Great Blue Heron, Coot, Surf Scoter, Black Turnstone, Killdeer, Oystercatcher, Grebe, Phalarope, Sandpiper Curlew, Godwit, Clapper Rail or Wandering Tattler may decide to try one of those crusty plastic things for breakfast.

†