Southern Indiana Farmer Quits Chemicals, Goes Organic and Regenerative | EP 96 Brandon Pfeiffer

From 1,500 conventional acres to certified organic and regenerative: a Southern Indiana farmer shares how he made the switch and what it takes. Brandon Pfeiffer of Pop Yuncker's Farmstead in Mount Vernon farmed around 1,500 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and grain sorghum the conventional way. After serious health problems in his family, including his own kidney failure, he and his wife and daughter decided to stop using farm chemicals and GMO seed and go 100% organic. He talks about coming home covered in glyphosate, Gramoxone, and 2,4-D after being told in college it was safe, and how his daughter helped him change his diet. He says his kidney function has stayed good at his latest physical. Brandon walks step by step through the three-year transition: cereal rye after corn harvest, roller crimping at milk stage, no-till short-season soybeans, wheat, then a 13-way cover crop before going back to corn. He explains keeping the ground covered, Haney soil tests, natural amendments only, and why regenerative is about bringing soil biology back. He also credits Joe Salatin and Ray Archuleta for shaping how he farms. The numbers on tape: using his Warrick County example, organic field corn at about $11 a bushel and 150 bushels an acre comes to around $1,450 an acre net after inputs, compared with roughly $100 an acre he says a conventional farmer might clear in a good year. One friend told him his conventional corn cost was over $700 an acre. Brandon also says his 2.5-acre specialty plot, with popcorn, potatoes, pastured hogs, and chickens rotated through, earns more profit in a good year than the rest of his acreage. The corn grown there last year needed no added fertilizer. It is not all easy. Flooding on the Wabash pushed deer onto his organic soybeans near New Harmony and wiped out a 20-acre field twice this year, while the conventional field next door was barely touched. He lost about a third of his potato crop to flooding. He also remembers a creek on the family farm that once fed them bass, catfish, bluegill, and crappie each week, and now holds mostly carp and gar. We want to be clear: this is not about blaming conventional farmers. As we say in the conversation, they are trying to provide for families that have farmed for generations inside a system of regulations, incentives, insurance, seed, and chemicals. The question we keep asking is how Evansville, Boonville, and the rest of Southern Indiana could grow more of our own real food close to home, with healthier soil, cleaner water, and healthier families. A next step anyone can take: find a grower near you. Brandon sells organic popcorn, pecans, pastured pork, grass-fed beef, chicken, eggs, granola, and whipped honey through popyunckers.com and Facebook, and supplies local restaurants with Latin American potatoes, corn for masa, and pecans. Ask where your food comes from, and tell us in the comments: what is one local farm or market we should talk to next? Guest: Brandon Pfeiffer, Pop Yuncker's Farmstead, Mount Vernon, Indiana. Certified organic and Real Organic Project certified. Buy Pop Yuncker products: https://evansville.localfoodmarketpla... Brandon's Facebook page:   / brandon.pfeiffer.77   Pop Yuncker's Farmstead page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... Host: Chad Schmidt, Unite The Divided Chad is most active on Facebook (at least for now):   / chadbschmidt   X: https://x.com/ChadSchmidt Take action: https://unitethedivided.com/take-action/ Patreon:   / unitethedivided   Volunteer to clip, research, or help produce. Music: https://suno.com/@unitethedivided