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ORAL HISTORY

Galen Iverstine

Iverstine Farms Butcher

Galen Iverstine, born in 1986, grew up in and around Baton Rouge. Raised in the suburbs, he attended LSU, where, adrift his senior year, he signed up for an English class that focused on food writing. He fell into a rabbit hole: food policy, industrial agricultural models, subsistence farming — these were topics he could get interested in. In 2009, Galen landed an internship on a New Hampshire farm run by Roger Noonan, a proponent of organic growing and CSA consumerism. He returned home and with the help of his parents, purchased sixty-five acres an hour away in Kentwood.

Initially, Iverstine Farms grew cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, all based on a rotational, regenerative field model. He sold his protein at farmers markets and specialty groceries. In 2016, Galen opened Iverstine Farms Butcher, where he sells meat raised at his Kentwood farm and by other local producers dedicated to sustainable farming models.