Remembering Johnny Barnes

SPRING HOPE, NC – Johnny Barnes knew how to achieve big goals. In 1986, he returned home to the family farm established by his parents Carson and Maxine and helped turn it into an operation which markets sweet potatoes across the country and globally. He also helped build organizations which assist in the marketing of sweet potatoes.

Today, the farm is a multi-faceted farming operation which grows 7,000 acres of sweet potatoes on a total of 20,000 acres of cropland.

Last summer, Johnny passed away at the early age of 61, leaving behind his wife, North Carolina State Sen. Lisa Stone Barnes, their children Bethany, Josh and Jacy, his mother Maxine, four grandchildren and a wide extended family.

“Johnny was very instrumental in how the North Carolina sweet potato industry functioned,” said Thomas Joyner, president of Nash Produce, who first met Barnes some 50 years ago when both were in the Boy Scouts. “He served on the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission’s board and was the reason we set up the American Sweet Potato Marketing Institute” (of which Barnes was president until spring 2025). In that role, Barnes helped develop export markets for American sweet potatoes.

“He made sure to involve his children and help them gain the skillset necessary to run the operation,” Joyner said.

Today, Josh and Jacy actively manage the enterprises their father built, Barnes Farming Corporation & Farm Pak.

“This was the year we were going to be swapping roles,” said Josh.

Most of the farmland is loamy sand; 25% of the sweet potato ground is tiled, and 3% of the cropland is irrigated. In addition to sweet potatoes, the farm grows 1,000 acres of flue-cured tobacco, 4,500 acres of peanuts, 4,000 acres of soybeans and 1,000 acres of wheat. They also grow 25 acres of Japanese persimmons. The operation includes 150 full-time employees and at peak employs 600 workers.

The operation is a full-service grower/packer/shipper. They use QR codes to track potatoes from the field to their final destinations. The packinghouse runs close to year-round and incorporates multiple shifts to meet peak demand in the lead-up to Thanksgiving.

Eighty-five percent of the sweet potatoes they grow are ‘Covingtons.’ They also grow ‘Purple Splendor’ and white-fleshed ‘Murasaki.’ The farm works with North Carolina State University on growing trials, particularly on how to manage nematodes.

They also grow 500 acres of watermelon, today marketed under the name Bethany’s Best. Watermelons began a summer project for Bethany at age 14, when she decided to grow two acres of watermelons. The next year she did it again and eventually brought on the help of Josh and Jacy.

“I drove the school bus,” Jacy recalls – an old yellow Ford bus converted into an extra-long flatbed for hauling containers of melons. Josh would pick the melons and throw them to Bethany on the back of the truck. Jacy would steer the bus down the lane.

“We sold them at the farmers market in Rocky Mount,” Josh said. “That’s where our great-grandmother Ella Barnes sold produce decades ago.

“Having that direct experience growing up earned us the respect of long-time employees,” continued Josh, who also spent summers working in the packinghouse.

As much as losing their father last year was a shock to the Barnes children, this year the reality of his absence continues to set in.

“It’s tough to summarize how much he influenced us,” Josh said.

“What I remember most about him,” Jacy said, “is how he cared for the land and people around him.”

by Karl H. Kazaks