Juan Greene

Greene played a central role in the establishment of organised farming representation in Ireland. Following his father's footsteps in agricultural associations, he was instrumental in founding the National Farmers' Association (NFA) (later known as the Irish Farmers' Association) in 1955, having broken a critical deadlock at a meeting in Thurles in August 1954 by proposing a new body that would operate alongside existing associations rather than replace them. He was unanimously elected the NFA's first president, a position he held until 1962, and within three months of the association's founding had overseen the formation of some 450 local branches with 12,000 members.^[1][2]

During his tenure, Greene worked to position the NFA as the primary voice of Irish farming, pursuing goals that extended beyond price negotiations to encompass agricultural policy, production methods, and marketing reform. He chaired the Advisory Committee on the Marketing of Agricultural Produce (1957–1959), whose reports led to the establishment of An Bord Bainne and the reconstitution of the Pigs and Bacon Commission. He was also active internationally through the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, where he twice chaired the policy committee and pioneered the idea of using agricultural surpluses to address hunger in developing countries. He favoured a conciliatory and low-key leadership style, and after he retired from the NFA, he served on numerous government commissions and the boards of several companies and financial institutions, including the Bank of Ireland and the Central Bank of Ireland.^[1]

He married Juliet Woodford Causer in 1948, and they had three children.^[1]

He died in the Richmond Surgical Hospital, Dublin, on 9 November 1979, aged 61, and was buried in Kilkea cemetery.^[1]