Inducted November 17, 2017
John Jordan is a local farmer, well known through his broadcasting of Farm Market News and Agri-Tech News and Farm Events Calendar, which has informed local farmers over many years.
John was born on July 19th, 1949 in Chatham, Ontario to parents Jack Jordan and Marjorie (Fletcher). He was married on August 28th, 1971 to Barbara Reissner, daughter of Carrel and Vera (Holmes). They have two children, Leigh-Anne Jordan Lowes (Robert) and Sean (Tamara), and they have three grandchildren.
John is a graduate of John McGregor Secondary School in Chatham and holds a diploma in Agricultural Tech from the Ridgetown Agricultural College, now the University of Guelph.
John was host of CBC Radio Noon in Windsor, beginning in 1970. He then created a successful agricultural public relations firm and did freelance writing for the farm press across the country.
He was News Director and Agriculture Reporter for Radio Station CKSY in Chatham beginning in 1986. He is quoted as saying that "we squeezed in 45 minutes of news content and markets were important".
Hired in 1991 by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, John sent out the Farm Market News from the 'Reek' Building at RCAT to inform farmers of the prices of commodities when paper files were the only means available to farmers. This involved gaining the trust of dealers. He also covered the cost of production for farm animals such as poultry and dairy, and even land rental prices.
John was also instrumental in bringing the database into the computer age.
Blair Andrews, Editor of Agri-Link and Farm Market News said, "Beginning as a manually created, labour intensive broadcast medium, he has taken the news product from a radio station based service to an individual client based service through the use of computer and internet".
In 1991, the Ontario Soybean Marketing Board passed its market prices report and phone recording on to John's care. He also did similar reports for the Ontario Corn Producers.
As farmers began to take more control of storing and marketing their crops, the information of price trends became even more important.
John also helped to develop technology to translate the data within the farm Market News to an interactive report which can then be utilized by the Grain Farmers of Ontario Sell Smart app so important with the next generation of techno savvy farmers. In addition, he was responsible for the Agri-Tech News which included a mix of new technological innovations and local events.
John retired in 2005, and served as mediator at some local and federal election candidate meetings. John was also featured in the Ontario Grain Farmer with a regular column, "From the Verandah".
John is a lifelong farmer in the former Raleigh Township, and he currently, is share cropping and gardening.
John volunteers with the Raleigh Neighbourhood Watch, the Wesley United Church as a session member, on the Steering Committee of Chatham-Kent, in the Dickens Fellowship, and had a bed and breakfast for many years with his wife, Barbara.
John is an avid motorcyclist, bicyclist and loves to travel.
Accolades: Kim Cooper, Agriculture Specialist with Chatham-Kent, "I have personally known John for over 30 years and have always appreciated his professionalism in the media work he was involved with….He spoke the truth with clarity and a unique style…."