Three prominent farmers elected to Tennessee Farmers Cooperative board

Keith Fowler of Martin, Robert Thompson of Niota, and Sloan Stewart of Lynchburg were recently elected to serve three-year terms on the Tennessee Farmers Cooperative (TFC) Board of Directors. Their election was ratified at the 2024 TFC Annual Meeting, held December 1-2 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

            Returning to the board after a one-year absence is Keith Fowler, who will represent Zone 1. He replaces Amos Huey of Kenton, who was not eligible for re-election. Keith was first elected to the board in 2014, serving nine years, including terms as vice chairman from 2018-2022. He farms more than 6,000 acres in Weakley and Gibson counties, raising corn, wheat, and soybeans. He is a member of Weakley Farmers Cooperative. Keith and wife, Linda, have three children — son, Chris, who farms with his dad, and daughters, Rachel and Emily.

               Robert Thompson was re-elected to the board, representing farmers from Zone 3. He has served on the board since 2021. Robert farms 760 acres in the McMinn County community of Niota. His family farm, Lane View Farms, was founded in 1883, and he is a fourth-generation farmer. A Co-op member since 1982, Robert grows corn and hay and has a cow/calf operation. Robert was awarded the 2008 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Agriculture and Forestry for his conservation efforts on the farm.  A member of AgCentral Co-op, Robert has served on the local Co-op board as well as on the merger committee when McMinn Farmers Co-op consolidated to form AgCentral Co-op. Robert and his wife, Lyn, have one son, Will.

               Sloan Stewart of Moore County representing Zone 2, was also re-elected to the board. He has served as a TFC Director, since 2022, when he was elected to replace David Rhea, who resigned from the board. Sloan has a long background in farming, banking, and county government. He currently serves as the Metro Moore County Mayor, a position he also held from 2009 to 2018, and has been a member of numerous agriculture, bank, and farm credit boards, including active service on his local Farm Bureau Board and Cattlemen’s Association. A longtime member of the Co-op, Sloan is the past president of the Bedford-Moore Farmers Cooperative Board of Directors and operates a 1,000-acre cow/calf backgrounding operation with his wife, Cathy.