Takin' it to the streets

It can readily be seen in the world today that agriculture is not even tolerably productive unless it incorporates many goods and services produced in cities or transplanted from cities."

- Jane Jacobs "The Economy of Cities"

The fact that family farms in this country need aid has as much, if not more to do with our flawed national farm policy than with the "inefficiencies" of small-scale farming. Waiting for the federal government to get its act together is not an option here. Grassroots efforts such as Farm Aid are critical.

A key to the survival of the American family farm lies in the American farmer's ability to make direct and deep connections with their city cousins. Just check out an urban farmers' market or Community Supported Agriculture for evidence of this.

These cooperative arrangements linking farmer and consumer benefit both groups. City dwellers are the recipients of fresh wholesome produce at reasonable prices and farmers are able to make a decent profit while keeping prices down as a result of bypassing wholesalers and selling direct to consumers. A real win-win.

So given all this, it makes perfect sense to take Farm-Aid to the city. That's exactly what Willie Nelson, Neil Young and friends are doing. (GW)

Next Stop ... Farm Aid

By Jon Pareles
New York Times
September 7, 2007

Across most of New York City, the family farm might well be a potted plant struggling on a windowsill. But that hasn’t stopped Farm Aid from bringing its annual concert here. It’s the city’s first Farm Aid concert in the 22 years since Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp first put on a benefit for family farmers. This year Farm Aid: A Homegrown Festival will take place on Sunday at Randalls Island, with full-length headlining sets by the organization’s three founders and by Dave Matthews, who joined the board of directors in 2001.

Why New York? The city brings renewed news media attention to the long-running event, of course. Farm Aid was also invited here, said its executive director, Carolyn Mugar, by an assortment of environmentalists, politicians (including the mayor’s office) and chefs. Over the years Farm Aid has become part of what’s known as the Good Food Movement, alongside organizations working from various angles to roll back industrial farming and promote organic and sustainable food production — and consumption. While the city itself may not be farm country, it’s full of people who eat.

“Farmers are never going to survive if they don’t have as allies the people who want this good food,” Ms. Mugar said. “New York has a huge density of eaters and a density of people who are doing excellent things. There are restaurants, farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture programs, even people who are growing food in the city and teaching people how to grow it.”

Along with Mr. Nelson’s jazzy Texas honky-tonk, Mr. Young’s rangy folk-rock, Mr. Mellencamp’s heartland anthems and Mr. Matthews’s rhythm and introspection (in his duo with Tim Reynolds), Farm Aid’s lineup of nearly two dozen acts is full of roots-rock, country and jam bands. It includes the Allman Brothers Band (and some spinoffs), Counting Crows, the country duo Montgomery Gentry, the Jewish reggae singer Matisyahu and the top Grammy-winner in polka, Jimmy Sturr.

Farm Aid has always been more informal than the typical all-star benefit concert. An eclectic musician like Mr. Nelson can sit in with just about anyone. With jam-band stalwarts like Gregg Allman, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes in the lineup, the New York show is likely to be filled with collaborations throughout the daylong concert. “Everybody’s singing with Gregg Allman,” Mr. Mellencamp said.

While there are no plans for a live broadcast, video from the concert will be available on demand from 3 p.m. on Thursday through Sept. 19 at the organization’s Web site, farmaid.org.

Farm Aid grew out of a remark Bob Dylan made at the Live Aid concert in 1985: “Wouldn’t it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?” Mr. Nelson liked that idea and contacted Mr. Young and Mr. Mellencamp, who was about to release his album “Scarecrow,” with a song about a farmer losing his land to a foreclosure. In six weeks they put together what turned out to be the first Farm Aid on Sept. 22, 1985, in Champaign, Ill.

They expected it to be a one-time event, raising money to help family farmers hold on to their land and their livelihoods and inspiring changes to laws that favored industrial farms over family ones.

“I hoped it would only last one year, and then all the guys in Congress would say, ‘Hey, we need a new farm bill,’ ” Mr. Nelson said by telephone from Boston. He’s on tour with Ray Price and Merle Haggard, who will also be at Farm Aid.

“How naïve were we?” John Mellencamp said by telephone from his home in Indiana. “We had no idea that this would last 22 years. Last time we got together, we looked at each other and started laughing. ‘Can you believe we’re still here?’ ”

All Farm Aid performers appear at their own expense. “We’ve never given any money to anybody for anything — no gas money, no beer money,” Mr. Mellencamp said. “We actually have to watch our nickels and dimes so our money can go to the right places. We’re kind of a mom-and-pop store here.” Mr. Nelson still signs every Farm Aid check.

Farm Aid has raised $30 million and disbursed more than 80 percent of it. It has helped farmers with financial difficulties, but its mission grew to have broader implications, from environmentally aware agriculture to farmers’ markets to restaurant menus.

For Mr. Nelson Farm Aid’s ideals are a reminder of his childhood in Abbott, Tex. “We had organic food and didn’t know it for a long time,” he said. “It tasted great, and we only know that we grew it out in the back garden, and we had a lot of great potatoes and tomatoes and all our own vegetables. Then I left home to go on the road and I couldn’t find that food any more.”

True to Farm Aid’s mission, there won’t be any factory-farmed junk food sold at the Randalls Island concert. For what is probably the first time at a large New York City show — the capacity is 25,000 — all the food will be grown on family farms.

"People have to take over their own food supply,” Mr. Nelson said. “They have to make sure whatever they eat is healthy and do whatever it takes to do that: shopping locally, farming locally, consuming locally.”

The music, however, is mostly from out of state. Warren Haynes, though known as a Southern rocker for his membership in the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule, is based in New York City. So is Matisyahu. Otherwise, local musicians are scarce on the Farm Aid lineup. Mr. Mellencamp said that he had contacted some New York bands that he would not name, but that they turned down the unpaid gig.

Farm Aid has quietly become a down-home institution. “We are making a difference, be it ever so humble,” Mr. Mellencamp insisted. “We would like to see huge change immediately, but we’re all old enough and cynical enough and smart enough to know that’s not going to happen.” He chuckled. “We’ll be doing Farm Aid till the day we die.”