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Fund-raising concert for family farmers stars Nelson, Young and Matthews

Tuesday, July 23, 2002

By Scott Mervis, Weekend Editor, Post-Gazette

During the monumental Live Aid concert in 1985, held to provide Ethiopian famine relief, Bob Dylan made an offhand comment about how something should be done for American farmers.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp picked up the ball and, within six weeks, organized a concert in Champaign, Ill., called Farm Aid. It drew more than 80,000 people and raised more than $7 million. Over the last 16 years, 14 more Farm Aid concerts have been held, usually in the Farm Belt.

This year, it's coming to our back yard.

Farm Aid 2002 will take place Sept. 21 at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown with a lineup featuring Nelson, Mellencamp and Young, as well as Dave Matthews, who last fall became the first artist to be appointed to Farm Aid's board.

"I love to play music and I like good crowds," said Nelson, the Farm Aid president, from a tour stop in Cleveland, "and in that respect it's a lot of fun. But the fact that we have to have a Farm Aid is a black eye on our country, and we shouldn't have to have benefits to benefit our family farmers. They should be able to make a living like everyone else."

Farm Aid began in the mid-1980s when rising interest rates and falling produce prices resulted in unprecedented numbers of bank foreclosures for family farmers. The nonprofit organization has stayed with the cause ever since.

"We're still losing hundreds of farmers each week because of bad farm policies," Nelson said. "It's impossible for a young couple to take a farm and make it work and make ends meet. That's what's wrong with our whole economy. Agriculture is the first rung on our economic ladder, and once we've seen that collapse, everything above it collapses."

In all, Farm Aid has raised more than $24 million in support of the family farm. The concerts now raise about $1 million a year. Nearly $16 million has been granted to more than 100 farm organizations, churches and service agencies in 44 states to promote sustainable agriculture, fight "factory" farms, advocate for fair farm prices and provide credit counseling and assistance to farm families.

Farm Aid does not hand out money to farmers.

"That's not the most effective and efficient way to use the contribution dollars," said Ted Quaday, program director for Farm Aid. "We really try to maximize our impact by working with organizations who change the overall landscape for family farmers."

The Pennsylvania Farmers Union, for example, has received grants of up to $5,000.

"We've had several grants from Farm Aid to do some outreach education, to be able to go out in the community to inform them of what's going on in farming, to help offer services or counseling to family farm members who have not gotten it through conventional channels," said Larry Breech, president of the union.

This will be the first Farm Aid concert in the Northeast..

"Dave Matthews was the first one to suggest it," Nelson said. "He thought it would be a good place. That's where he wanted to do it, and I figured he knew what he was talking about. I just know there's a lot of farmers in Pennsylvania, and we haven't had a Farm Aid in this part of the country, so it seemed like a great idea."

"Why Pennsylvania? Why not Pennsylvania?" added Mark Smith, Farm Aid campaign director. "To us, agriculture in Pennsylvania is a microcosm of agriculture in the rest of the country. There are creative things happening to promote local diversified family farm agriculture. On the other side, there are disturbing trends like the fact that rural Pennsylvania is being targeted by corporate hog farms."

Pennsylvania, one of the top 10 agricultural states, works as a symbolic location for Farm Aid. Agriculture is the No. 1 industry in Pennsylvania, with $4.2 billion in cash farm receipts annually. According to Russell Redding, deputy secretary of agriculture for the state, "As it works through the economy, it generates another $40 billion in activity and employs about 800,000 people from farm to fork -- that's processing, trucking, distribution, retail, wholesale, restaurant trade."

Pennsylvania also is the No. 1 state in the nation for farmland preservation. Since 1989, when the Pennsylvania Farmland Preservation Program was created, the state has protected more than 1,958 farms totaling more than 234,590 acres -- more farms and more acres preserved than any other state.

Farm Aid's financial contribution pales in comparison to government subsidies of farmers, which amounted to $28 billion in 2000. But, said Redding, "[Farm Aid] makes a difference. They have targeted uses for those dollars, which you need to do. When you look at agriculture on a U.S. scale, that doesn't look like a lot of money. But when you target those dollars toward transitioning farms from one generation to the next, and dealing with farm crisis issues, I think it's very beneficial."

Country music legend Nelson has been a hands-on president, working from his tour bus and appearing before Congress to speak on behalf of bills favoring the family farm. His energy keeps Farm Aid alive, according to Mellencamp.

"Where is Live Aid [now]?" Mellencamp told the Austin American Statesman two years ago. "Where is Hands Across America? There are still kids starving in Africa, just as there are still American farmers who need help. God bless Willie. When he made a commitment, he stuck to it, and I'm going to stick with him."

For the fifth straight year, Farm Aid will be telecast live as an eight-hour special on CMT: Country Music Television. More artists will be announced soon, along with ticket prices and the concert's on-sale date.