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Conversation about Maryland agricultureConversation about Maryland agriculture

Young Farmer Podcast: John Torres is from Ohio, but his home now is in Maryland, where he’s the executive director of the Maryland Farm Bureau.

Chris Torres, Editor

June 16, 2021

If Maryland is “little America” — with all its diverse scenery and landscapes — John Torres is happy to be there.

"The farming community here is an outstanding community. They are people who care about what they do. They're passionate about their careers and their fields. They feel a calling to work to fuel and feed the rest of the world," says Torres, who took over as executive director of the Maryland Farm Bureau two years ago.

He’s not from the Old Line State. Torres grew up in northwest Ohio, just south of the Michigan state line, in row crop country — the Eastern Corn Belt — and was involved in 4-H and FFA as a kid.

He graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in ag business and economics, and got started in agribusiness joining ADM as a commodity trader. Farm advocacy came calling, and he went to work for the Ohio Farm Bureau, then took a position with American Farm Bureau Federation before taking a “break” and working for the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association.

He then got recruited to take the executive director’s role at the Maryland Farm Bureau.

Maryland’s diverse agriculture — with thousands of broiler houses on the Eastern Shore, dairy in the western part of the state, and lots of urban and small farms in between — might look like a challenging place to bring farmers together, but Torres sees it as an opportunity.

"I would say that there's a lot of great opportunities that we have,” he says. “Yeah, there are competing interests always; you'll find that anywhere in the country. But I think the diversity we have here in Maryland really provides a lot of opportunities for the farming community, for agriculture overall to engage with mainly what I would call nontraditional audiences that might seem a little bit more nontraditional for me coming from the Midwest.”

Listen to more of what Torres has to say about Maryland agriculture and the top issues facing farmers and young producers in the state in today’s Young Farmer Podcast.

About the Author

Chris Torres

Editor, American Agriculturist

Chris Torres, editor of American Agriculturist, previously worked at Lancaster Farming, where he started in 2006 as a staff writer and later became regional editor. Torres is a seven-time winner of the Keystone Press Awards, handed out by the Pennsylvania Press Association, and he is a Pennsylvania State University graduate.

Torres says he wants American Agriculturist to be farmers' "go-to product, continuing the legacy and high standard (former American Agriculturist editor) John Vogel has set." Torres succeeds Vogel, who retired after 47 years with Farm Progress and its related publications.

"The news business is a challenging job," Torres says. "It makes you think outside your small box, and you have to formulate what the reader wants to see from the overall product. It's rewarding to see a nice product in the end."

Torres' family is based in Lebanon County, Pa. His wife grew up on a small farm in Berks County, Pa., where they raised corn, soybeans, feeder cattle and more. Torres and his wife are parents to three young boys.

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