The Farmer's Life | Brian Scott popcorn farmer from Indiana | The Vance Crowe Podcast | Episode 38

About this episode

Brian Scott of "The Farmer's Life" is one of agriculture's earliest and most successful farmer-influencers, having built an online following since 2011 through his blog and Facebook page documenting daily life on his family's row-crop operation in Monticello, Indiana. Vance traces Brian's origin story: an accidental first blog post written from a Hawaii hotel room, years of slow, unglamorous growth, and then two viral breakthroughs — a 2016 video of his six-year-old son Matthew driving the planter that jumped his following from 17,000 to 42,000 overnight, and a widely-shared, line-by-line annotated post explaining his actual Monsanto technology-use agreement, republished on CNN, that became "the definitive post on the topic" during the height of anti-GMO sentiment. That post's origin — as a direct rebuttal to Occupy-movement rhetoric equating farmers with corporate slaves — becomes a springboard for a broader conversation about how the "thank a farmer" genre backfired by handing critics ammunition, versus authentic "hero's journey" storytelling that shows real failures alongside successes. The conversation moves through farm economics (equipment financing, inflation in land and machinery prices, the "buy retail, sell wholesale" complaint, and why Brian pushes back on farmers who complain about their thin slice of a loaf of bread's retail price), the disproportionate subsidy structure of crop insurance and Trump-era Market Facilitation Payments during the trade war, and African swine fever's outsized (and underreported) impact on soybean demand compared to tariffs alone. A long personal digression covers Brian's Purdue agronomy education, a near-decade detour into retail management at Rural King (including loss-prevention war stories), and his eventual return to full-time farming — framed as never really a choice, since it was "always the plan." The episode closes on farm safety (grain-bin engulfment, a combine wiring-harness fire Brian survived weeks earlier), popcorn as an unexpectedly major export commodity riding China's expanding middle class and movie-theater culture, and a heartfelt tribute to Janice Person, the early Monsanto social-media strategist credited with building bridges between farmers and skeptical non-farm audiences.

“It was our first combine we bought that started with a four at the beginning. So in the 400,000... It's just annoying... nobody had that auger. We had to drive halfway across the state to get it.”

“Well, so I'm only gonna speak for corn and soybeans... the MFP payments varied by county. How they figured out how much you're hurt by trade, by county in several weeks time, the way the government normally works, I have no idea.”

“I've been thinking a lot about the perception of the city versus the country... if they don't own property the way that they will view how it should be treated, who is in control of it... that balance of power completely shifts to being in the cities and in particular being on the coasts.”

Key moments

• ~7%: Brian recounts the viral 2016 video of his six-year-old son Matthew driving the planter — following jumped from 17,000 to 42,000 overnight (bubbles, legacy).
• ~19%: The combine-fire near-miss and years of "annoying" equipment scavenging stories anchor the episode's craft-heavy focus on the mechanical reality of modern precision farming (craft).
• ~33%: Origin of Brian's viral annotated Monsanto technology-use-agreement post, written as a direct rebuttal to Occupy-movement "corporate slave" rhetoric — later republished by CNN (institutions, mob).
• ~40%: Discussion of the "thank a farmer" genre backfiring by handing critics ammunition, versus authentic "hero's journey" storytelling that includes real failures (trust, bubbles).
• ~54%: The urban-rural political-power discussion — land ownership and the "compact" scheme to bypass the electoral college — tying property to representation (mob, institutions).
• ~62%: African swine fever's outsized, underreported impact on soybean demand, compared with the more visible trade-war tariff narrative (money, windows).
• ~86%: Brian's granular breakdown of crop-insurance subsidy rates and inconsistent, county-by-county Market Facilitation Payments during the trade war (windows, money).
• ~90%: The water-pollution perception gap — farmers blamed for nutrient runoff while urban sewage overflows draw little scrutiny (bubbles).
• ~95%: Closing tribute to Janice Person, the early Monsanto social-media strategist credited with building bridges between farmers and skeptical non-farm audiences (legacy, trust).

Notable quotes

“That balance of power completely shifts to being in the cities and in particular being on the coasts... the power is sucked out of the most valuable asset in the US, which is our land.”

“If nitrogen runs off my farm, I'm the worst person in the world... [but] millions and millions of human sewage is going in the lake and there's nothing we can do about it.”

“I woke up Saturday morning and I had 42,000 [followers].”

“The two counties we farm in were $10 an acre different [in trade-war payments]. The way the government normally works, I have no idea.”