The Tomato Legacy: From the Ground Up Clanton Farms Moving Into the Fifth Generation of Tomato Farmers r Randy Clanton, Sr. hopped into his white GMC pickup, adjusted his John Deere ball cap, put in a big chew of Levi Garrett and shifted the truck in drive. He drove down the gravel driveway onto Highway 160, the road that paved his entire life. He was raised on 160 and then raised his own family on the same road. This road was his commute to work every morning and the path his tomatoes traveled to market every evening. He’s a tomato farmer, but not just any tomato farmer. Randy Clanton Sr., known as “Big Randy,” changed tomato farming in Bradley County. Raised in Johnsville by farmers, he was destined to be in the field. Big Randy grew up on his family’s secondgeneration farm. He did not know that within forty years, the same farm would be the state’s largest producer of vine ripened tomatoes. Arkansas Grown Diamond Member Clanton Farms is a fifth-generation producer of tomatoes, cabbage, squash, zucchini, watermelon and other assorted produce. The company sells fresh commodities across the country, serving wholesale and foodservice nationwide. “Daddy has built a farm that’s four times as big as any other,” said Randy Clanton Jr., Big Randy’s youngest son. Randy Jr. said his dad is the best salesman and people person he has ever known. He said his dad always told him to make sure the customers are serviced right and should always be as happy at the end of a deal as the beginning. In the 70’s, Big Randy was the first farmer to cut out the middle man in tomato sales by selling directly to the customer. Previously, all Randy Clanton, Sr., (1970) farmers brought tomatoes to the auction and sold to wholesale buyers. “I always believed the best way to market your product on the farm was to go as straight to the consumer as possible,” said Big Randy. He was also the first farmer in southeast Arkansas to strike a deal with Walmart. Michael Hensley, president of Harrod and Hensley Tomato in Hermitage, has been a friendly competitor of Clanton Farms for 13 years. ARKANSAS GROWN 41
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