Barnes Farming was founded when Carson Barnes decided to grow 8.3 acres of tobacco and sweet potatoes in the early ‘60s. With much hard work from Carson and his wife Maxine over the past 50 years, Barnes Farming has grown to become the world’s largest sweet potato producer, managing more than 16,000 acre of prime, cultivated land. Today, Barnes Farming grows sweet potatoes, flue-cured tobacco, peanuts, soybeans, watermelons and wheat. Barnes Farming has been listed in American Vegetable Grower magazine’s Top 100 Grower list for 15 consecutive years. The operation also ranks in the Top 10 vegetable growers in the Southeastern United States. Despite the large growth, Barnes Farming is still a family owned business. It is managed by Carson’s son, Johnny Barnes.