Clemson University is a land grant university that has had a tremendous impact on the world of agriculture. In our new series “Clemson Reach,” Chip Carter introduces us to a man who brought some bold new ideas to his family’s produce operation and it paid off.
Chris Raw runs Clayton Raw Farms in Lexington, South Carolina. Chris came back to the family business in 1990 after attending Clemson. Back then they mainly dealt with vegetable transplants and field grown transplants.
Chris saw that slipping away, economically. So, they decided to stick with vegetables and add more crops. Now, they have around 20 crops, from greens to sweet corn and peanuts.
Clayton Raw supplies grocery distributors, food service organizations, and local markets with their produce, with most of it staying in the southeast United States.
Clemson played a major part in getting Chris where he is today. He states, “We learned a lot of life lessons that have contributed to my success. All those tactics I learned as a kid, I took them to Clemson and then put it in textbook terms and understood why I was doing what I was doing.”