By Katie Dehlinger, DTN Farm Business Editor, and Elaine Shein, DTN/Progressive Farmer Associate Content Manager
MT. JULIET, Tenn. (DTN) -- Musicians Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp turned their spotlight on the plight of farmers in 1985, during the depth of farming's financial crisis. They've kept it there ever since, growing Farm Aid beyond concerts and helplines, although those remain major functions of the organization.
The first concert raised more than $7 million; since 1985, the organization has raised nearly $80 million.
Today, the organization continues to advocate for financial fairness for family farms as well as local and regional food systems that often provide those farmers with a better pathway to profitability. While there are many definitions of a family farm, the organization works to shorten the connection between the consumer and the producer of food while increasing the prices paid to farmers in the process.
This past weekend, in Saratoga Springs, New York, Farm Aid celebrated its 39th year with its annual festival that included the original co-founders, newer board members, well-known performers, as well as hundreds of volunteers.
For the work that Nelson, Mellencamp, Young -- and others involved in Farm Aid -- have done as agricultural advocates, they've been selected to be honored in 2024 as part of a special series online at DTN, as well as a special issue of Progressive Farmer magazine. We're profiling people who individually, or sometimes with others in an organization, are making a difference as Voices for Agriculture.
FARM NUMBERS DECLINING
As the organization's board and staff gathered in New York state for the most recent Farm Aid festival, Jennifer Fahy, Farm Aid's communications director, shared that they met with farmers in the state to hear their stories.
"New York is home to 30,700 farms and is in a decline like in many other states over the years: 10% decline since 2017, so we know Farm Aid is still relevant and very much needed and that's why we're here today," she said at a press event held Sept. 21 in Saratoga Springs. "The reasons for that are due to rising production and labor costs, consolidation and abnormal weather patterns that are exacerbated by climate change.
"At the same time, eaters are also struggling; food insecurity is rising and across New York state approximately one in four families experience food insecurity," she said.
Farm Aid Program Director Shorlette Ammons, at the same festival press event, said there's still a lot of work to do in New York and across the country to find ways to meet the needs for local, healthy, climate-friendly food for everybody.
"Right now, a handful of corporations control our food, including what is available at the grocery store and how much it costs," Ammons said. "This is market manipulation 101 -- pushing down the prices paid to family farmers, ultimately driving them out of business. This is bad for farmers, bad for rural communities, bad for local economies, bad for public health and bad for the soil and water and climate conditions needed to create sustainable food production."
At the Farm Aid press event, the musicians spoke about their respect for farmers, as well as the need to support and help them. The singers talked about rising costs, corporate and factory farms and the impact of farm chemicals on health.
Mellencamp urged younger people to get out and make some noise about what is happening because if they don't, "corporate America will someday take everything." He added, "If you want a better world, it starts with you."
Young talked about how he and others are standing up for the American farmers: "We're here together. We are different, and we're separated in some ways, but we're all together and we have to look at it like we're together for the future because that's where our power really is, in all of us, and showing that we love the American farmer."
Young added, "I'm standing here for my brothers and my sisters and for all of Farm Aid, and for the 39 years of the Farm Aid that we've had so far."
He spoke strongly against factory farming. "When you see all the long industrial buildings full of animals, with fans on the sides of them, that's what we're against. That's not American farming. That's corporate factory farming."
Rock music musician Dave Matthews, a newer Farm Aid board member, talked about it being heartbreaking "when farming the earth, and that connection, is a radical political act. That's a society that's lost its mind."
He noted, "I used to think, we have all the technology ... to save the planet if we work together. We have it, we know how to do it. We know how to raise meat, we know how to raise vegetables, in balance with nature. We know how to do it, we have the technology, we have the wisdom. But the thing that stops us is greed. It's corporate farms, it's corporate agriculture."
FROM CONCERT TO CONGRESS
The musicians have taken their message beyond the festival events.
Nelson, the now-91-year-old singer and guitar player, has testified before Congress several times, including advocating for the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987, which saved thousands of family farms from foreclosure.
"We should encourage the financial industry to be very helpful to the family farmer," he told Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that bankers need to trust farmers to make the best decisions for their business and their soil.
"I also think farm-to-markets are a great idea. Where people, instead of buying their breakfasts from 1,500 miles away on a truck, they go next door and find a farmer who can produce it for them," he said.
CONNECTING TO LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD
Connecting concertgoers to locally produced food is one of the key ways the Farm Aid festival has grown. In 2007, it launched its HOMEGROWN Concessions initiative, where all of the food sold is sourced from farms around the concert venue.
"We're creating a business opportunity for those farmers to sell their products into the festival venue for the day of our event, but also hopefully, establish ongoing relationships with the venue, so they can be part of that food system in an ongoing way," Fahy told DTN.
It's even grown beyond the Farm Aid movement. Farm Aid staff helped founding member Young's last two tours coordinate similar concessions, and they're working with other artists, too. While tours are an important first step, the goal is to make it regular practice of the venue.
PROGRESS ON INITIATIVES
While Farm Aid's leadership sees progress on many of its initiatives, including a popular helpline to connect farmers to a wide array of resources, many of the challenges are the same as they've been for decades.
"The bottom line is farmers need to be earning a fair price for their products," Fahy said. "One of the big challenges we're always talking about in agriculture is corporate power and the ability for independent individual farmers to compete in these markets and earn that fair price. Farm Aid has been talking about that since day one."
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
But no one at Farm Aid is giving up anytime soon, despite its founding members' rising ages. Nelson cancelled several performances this summer, citing health concerns, although he attended the 2024 Farm Aid concert in September. Farm Aid has expanded its board, bringing on Matthews in 2001 and Margo Price in 2021, balancing out the ages of the original board members. (Mellencamp will be 73 years old in October; Young turns 79 in November.)
Price, a country singer-songwriter and producer, noted this past weekend was the eighth Farm Aid concert she has been involved in.
"Each year I feel incredibly inspired," she said, as she hears farmers share their stories of how they persevere through all sorts of problems, including illness, debt and other misfortunes.
She explained she can relate to the struggles. "Not only because I saw firsthand how the loss of my family farm affected everyone around me, but also because I think farming is a lot like the music business ... in the fact that it's just really not sustainable for a lot of folks anymore. Corporate monopolies are destroying small businesses all over America, and every year, you know, it gets harder and harder.
"I think both of these occupations are really risky because it takes the perfect environment to make it grow and we're just up against a lot. The control of seeds, land and water ... it threatens small-scale farmers and it exploits workers."
The organization is in the process of figuring out its future plans.
Carolyn Mugar, who has served as Farm Aid's executive director since the first concert, told DTN there's more work to be done. But she is not worried about the future.
"I don't fear what will happen, because I know they'll figure it out just like they did with the first concert," she said. "We're up to being relevant. We will have to keep figuring it out just like farmers have to keep figuring it out."
WORKING WITH FARMERS
This year's visit by the Farm Aid organization to New York included a farmer forum held Sept. 20 that discussed how to "counter the relentless unfairness of the corporate food system," Fahy said.
Ammons explained, "It was called 'rural call to action for all.' So, Farm Aid's vision is one of a transformed America where family farmers and eaters are active participants in building their collective power to create a thriving farm and food system that benefits everybody."
Ammons talked about a powerful movement of farmers and food justice activists "to incite change where rural communities are working alongside our urban kinfolk."
She added, "These farmers are dedicated, they're also diverse. They are all different ages, all different levels of coming into agriculture. They are black, indigenous and people of color farmers. They are LGBQ+ farmers, and they are female farmers. This is how we make sure that every community's food system serves unique needs. These farmers ... are leading the way in a more democratic and equitable farm and food system that can sustain all of us."
Katie Dehlinger can be reached at katie.dehlinger@dtn.com
Follow her on social platform X @KatieD_DTN
Elaine Shein can be reached at elaine.shein@dtn.com
Follow her on social platform X @elaineshein
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Editor's Note:
DTN invites you to pass along to us who you feel is worthy of recognition in future Voices for Agriculture special coverage. Send your suggestions and reasons why to elaine.shein@dtn.com.
For more on our Voices for Agriculture special coverage, go to the following links:
-- Editor's Notebook blog, "Honoring Voices for Agriculture," https://www.dtnpf.com/…
-- "Tips To Become a Voice for Agriculture," https://www.dtnpf.com/…
-- "Voices for Agriculture: Millennial Farmer Zach Johnson Reflects on Past 8 Years," https://www.dtnpf.com/…
Editor's Notebook blog, "Voices for Agriculture: Just What We Needed," https://www.dtnpf.com/…
-- To listen to a podcast hosted by Sarah Mock where Elaine Shein and her talk about how DTN selected this year's Voices for Agriculture, who they are and some of the tips on being a Voice for Agriculture, go to E205: "Celebrating Voices for Agriculture" at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
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