Peanuts anyone?

When I was a kid, I didn't know anybody was allergic to peanuts. I took peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school all the time. I never saw someone rushed to the hospital with anaphylactic shock.
so where did this hysteria come from. Are my kids never going to get to enjoy a nice PB&J sandwich(the road trip food of choice)at school because one of their classmates has the dreaded peanut allergy.
where did it come from. I mean people have always been allergic to nuts. So is the government adding stuff to our food (genetic engineering, chemicals, etc.) so that our bodies learn to reject this jimmy carter, George Washington carver wonder?
It seems to be a recent phenomenon, so what aren't they telling us. Why would our bodies on such a large scale start rejecting "a protein" hmm makes you wonder?
Or maybe like SARS, West Nile, Mad Cow, its just a pretend epidemic, by the media? WHAT DO THEY HAVE AGAINST PEANUTS?!?