Farm Aid 2014 sounded the horn for farmers, hippies and self-aware citizens to come together in support of family farming. at Walnut Creek Amphitheater Saturday.
Willie Nelson led the 29th annual Farm Aid. He started it in 1985 to raise money and awareness for struggling family farmers being squashed out of food markets by large, industrial farming companies.
The event allowed the visitors who have never experienced the business side of farming first-hand to learn about the industry and its core values, while they listened to 12 hours of speakers and musicians advocate for a fair market for food growers.
The event kicked off with a press conference with the Board of Directors, consisting of Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, and representatives from Vollmer Farms and Operation Spring Plant, an organization that promotes the distribution of organic food to black communities and raises awareness about the plight of black farmers.
During the conference, Dave Matthews criticized the corporate model of farming.
“[The corporate model] doesn’t care about our country, it doesn’t care about our people, it doesn’t care about our children,” Matthews said. “It has no children. It only cares about money…money right now.”
Matthews said the goal should be “cutting out the giant middle man that is crushing everybody” in order to make room for what he called the “future of farming,” which is the Farmer’s Market model.
In order to compete with big businesses without being forced to join them, farmers have to get as close as they can with their consumers with the help of community Farmer’s Markets and other means or risk financial ruin and starvation.
NC State’s Poultry Science Department is funded by Prestage Farms, a major growing company that reaches from the Midwest down through the Southeast that, by its own admission on its website, “…delivers genetically superior animals to our grower families along with feed that has been formulated for the animals’ specific needs.”
Roland McReynolds, executive director of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, a nonprofit with a governing board elected by small-scale farmers, said the primary means companies use to corner the markets are strategic land grants and patented seed and livestock genes, but this is done at the sacrifice of food quality and the health of the farmland.
McReynolds said monoculture farms are what lead to “super weeds,” which allow pests to thrive. He said policy has been slanted in the past towards big business, yet he is optimistic about the innovators in farming working against the riptide of money interests.
Non-industrialized farming is a trade that brings the community together, much like music does, according to Micah Nelson, Willie Nelson’s son.
“Farmers feed the stomach, and musicians feed the soul,” Micah Nelson said.
Many big-name musicians headlined the concert portion of the evening, including Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Gary Clark Jr, Jack White, Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
Neil Young was the most openly critical act of the night. He stopped in the middle of his set and put down his guitar to lambast Sen. Richard Burr for his role in supporting industrial agriculture.
Young closed with a call-and-response with the crowd: “Stand up … and save the Earth! … Stand up … and save the Earth!”
Jim Hightower, a two-term Texas Agriculture Commissioner and populist agitator who moderated many of the speech events throughout the day, called for reflection and action from the crowd.
“Who has the power?” Hightower said. “That’s what we’re talking about here. Power.”
