If you lump all fast-food restaurants into the same profit-driven-pushers-of-unhealthy-food category, you may want to delineate a new group: Sustainable farming advocates.

OrganicAuthority has long supported Farm Aid, founded 25 years ago to support local and organic family farmers. 

This year’s concert will be held Oct. 2 at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI, with the following artist lineup: 

• Willie Nelson
• Neil Young
• John Mellencamp
• Dave Matthews
• Kenny Chesney
• Norah Jones
• Jason Mraz
• Jeff Tweedy
• Band of Horses
• The BoDeans
• Amos Lee
• Robert Francis

New this year is a special auction of Farm Aid memorabilia and experiences. Beginning Sept. 7, you can bid on eBay, with all proceeds benefiting Farm Aid. 

The popular HOMEGROWN concessions will return, featuring  family farm-identified, local and organic foods, as well as hands-on activities that give concertgoers a chance to meet farmers, get their hands dirty and learn how family farmers are connecting us to our roots.

Tickets are now on sale at the Milwaukee Brewers box office, by calling (414) 902-4000 and online. Prices range from $39.50 to $97.50.

This year’s sponsors include Horizon Organic, Silk Soymilk, DirecTV and Organic Valley.

Photo: © Paul Natkin /Photo Reserve, Inc.

Farm Aid, celebrating 25 years of protecting local and organic family farms, has just announced that its annual benefit concert will be held Oct. 2 at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The artist lineup will be announced soon.  Tickets ($39.50 to $97.50) will go on sale 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 14 (CDT) and are available at the Milwaukee Brewers box office, by phone at (414) 902-4000 or online.

The all-day festival will once again feature HOMEGROWN concessions: local and organic foods from family farms. Attendees can meet farmers, get their hands dirty, and learn how family farmers are connecting us to our roots.

“For 25 years, Farm Aid has worked to keep family farmers on the land,” says cofounder and legendary country artist Willie Nelson, who will perform at the concert. “This anniversary concert is a chance for everyone to join with Farm Aid to support the family farmers who are growing hope for America through the good food they produce, the economies they build, and their care for the soil and water. Family farmers are the backbone of our country, and right now we need them more than ever.”

“Midwest farmers share the same struggle as family farmers across the country,” adds cofounder and rocker John Mellencamp, who will also perform. “They are survivors, and they’re on the land creating solutions for America’s most pressing issues. Since 1985, Farm Aid has been a way for everyone in this country to step up and be part of the solution because nobody is going to solve these problems on their own. It’s going to take all of us working together.”

Photo © Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve, Inc.

Local and organic food-growers need your help!

Bill S. 510 is an overhaul of the food safety system that will hurt small-scale organic producers. The bill would require a $500 registration fee for all farms, regardless of size, and would require complicated monitoring of crops. If this bill passed, it would seriously burden small local and organic farms, which is probably why big food businesses like The American Frozen Food Institute, General Mills, and Kraft Foods support S. 510.

Food safety is an important issue, and Congress should definitely do something about it. But why put extra burdens on small growers when the major recent health scandals — E. Coli, melamine, and salmonella, just to name a few — were linked to industrial farming practices? This is surely an issue on which all citizens can agree — whether they be small-government conservatives or liberal, eco-friendly foodies.

Defenders of Wildlife, Farm Aid, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, among others, have announced their opposition to S. 510. Please join them and help stop it. This bill is scheduled to come before the US Senate for a vote in the next few weeks, so please, visit Credo Action to learn more and contact your Senator and tell them that you support organic and local farms.

Somerville, MA-based Farm Aid is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews remain committed to creating a family farm-centered U.S. food system.

The nonprofit organization is now planning its annual concert events, which will showcase the positive, sustainable future that family farmers are growing through their hard work every day. Across the country, these farmers are rebuilding local and regional food systems and reenergizing the economy.

“In 1985, we started out to save the family farmer,” Nelson says. “Now, it looks like the family farmer is going to save us. As our nation continues to endure an historic economic downturn, America’s family farmers offer us much hope.”

The economic and employment crisis that so many Americans face today mirrors what family farmers endured during the mid-1980s, when they found themselves threatened with foreclosures, bankruptcy and eviction. Hundreds of thousands of farms were lost. In response, the first Farm Aid concert was held in 1985; since then, the organization has been a relentless champion for family farmers.

Since its inception, Farm Aid has raised more than $36 million to support programs that keep family farmers on their land, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.

We’ll let you know about the concert date and talent lineup as soon as info becomes available.

Photo: Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc., 2009

Singer Neil Young was honored Friday as the MusiCares Person of the Year for his artistic accomplishments and philanthropic work with Farm Aid and The Bridge School, a California organization that assists disabled children.

A Farm Aid cofounder and board member, Young has worked for decades to help family farmers compete against Big Agribusiness.

“For 25 years, my friend Neil has been an impassioned champion of family farmers,” says Farm Aid President Willie Nelson. “He rallies concertgoers year after year at our show, and he relentlessly calls on Washington to reverse the bad policies that force family farmers off their land. He’s stubborn, passionate and persistent—just like family farmers.”

Grant Money for Family Farms

In December, Farm Aid provided $503,500 in grant money to 72 family farms and rural service organizations. The funding:

• Helps farm families stay on their land
• Builds new market opportunities for farmers and increases consumer access to good food
• Increases institutional buying of family-farm food
• Confronts the threat of corporate concentration in agriculture
• Recruits and trains new farmers
• Supports farmer-to-farmer programs for more sustainable agricultural practices

“Farm Aid is proud to support the crucial hands-on work happening all over the country to keep family farmers on the land,” says Executive Director Carolyn Mugar. “2009 has been a tough year for everyone, but farm families especially have struggled with low prices, tight credit and bad weather. These grants will help address the immediate needs of family farmers and continue to grow and strengthen the sustainable, family farm-based food system that helps us all thrive.”

Get Busy!

To make a tax-deductible contribution, click here.

Click here to purchase organic T-shirts that read “Stop Factory Farms.”

Get Some Neil!

1. Greatest Hits
2. After the Gold Rush
3. Harvest
4. Rust Never Sleeps
5. Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography

Photo by Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc. 2008; courtesy of Farm Aid

During yesterday’s successful concert, Farm Aid leaders asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support measures that help family farmers thrive.

In the 1990s, broken farm policies and consolidated corporate food production forced nearly 80% of hog farmers out of business. According to Farm Aid, similar circumstances are causing dairy farmers to be paid less than half of what it costs to produce milk, and the United States risks losing thousands of dairy farmers this year alone.

At yesterday’s concert, Farm Aid representatives reiterated their request for the USDA to set a price for milk that covers the cost of production, which would guarantee dairy farmers a fair price that keeps them on their land. Farm Aid also asked the USDA to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund new and larger factory farms.

“Family farmers are the first rung of the economic ladder in this country,” said Farm Aid Founder and President Willie Nelson. “Against all odds, they have persevered and found ways to stay on their land, growing good food for all of us and creating strong communities. It’s time now for policy to rise to meet their needs with fair prices and support for their innovations.”

“We invite all Americans to join us in pressing for food production that protects our environment, our health and our economy,” added Executive Director Carolyn Mugar. “We are encouraged by the opportunity the new administration in Washington offers us all for making the needed changes.”

At the concert, USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan joined farmers and food advocates in a conversation about the many ways family farmers are rebuilding local and regional food systems and reenergizing the economy.

“Farmers face overwhelming challenges as they work each day to put food on our tables, and Farm Aid’s ongoing efforts on behalf of family farmers have helped put a human face on this vocation,” she said. “At the same time, there is a bright future for small- and mid-sized producers because there is an agricultural renaissance taking place in America. More and more consumers are wanting to better connect with their producers, and USDA’s new Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative helps to accomplish that goal.”

For Your Organic Bookshelf: Farm Aid: A Song for America

Photo: Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc. 2009

Farm Aid’s 2009 Concert begins at 5 p.m. today (ET), with sets from Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Gretchen Wilson and Jason Mraz, among other performers.

DIRECTV will exclusively broadcast the event live and in HD on The 101 Network.  The company has also pledged to match customer donations up to $50,000 through Oct. 31.

The concert will be streamed live on Farm Aid’s website. To make a $5 donation that helps family farmers, text FARMER to 90999 during the concert. Click here to donate online. To follow the event on Twitter, click here.

Farm Aid has partnered with St. Louis businesses to help achieve zero waste goals during the concert and add to the established Verizon Wireless Amphitheater recycling program.

With the help of Replenishing the Earth and Route 66 Organics, all compostable waste   will be turned into agricultural material. Volunteers will help concertgoers differentiate between landfill-bound trash, recyclables and compostables.

The energy used to produce the concert will be offset by purchases of renewable energy certificates through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Farm Aid's concert greening initiatives are underwritten by Horizon Organic and Silk Soymilk.

Photo by Paul Natkin/Photo Reserve Inc. 2008; courtesy of Farm Aid

Country star Gretchen Wilson has joined the lineup of stars for the Oct. 4 Farm Aid concert in Maryland Heights, MO.

Already slated to appear are Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Jason Mraz, Wilco, Jamey Johnson, Phosphorescent, Billy Joe Shaver, Will Dailey, Ernie Isley & the Jam Band, Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses, The Blackwood Quartet, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, and Titty Bingo.

DIRECTV will exclusively broadcast the event live and in HD on The 101 Network, beginning 5 p.m. ET. The company has also pledged to match customer donations up to $50,000 through Oct. 31.

Farm Aid 2009 will also be webcast and streamed live on the organization’s website, beginning 5 p.m. ET. To make a $5 donation that helps family farmers, text FARMER to 90999 during the concert. Click here to donate online. To follow the event on Twitter, click here.

A limited number of tickets are still available at livenation.com, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater Box Office (877-598-8703) and participating Blockbuster stores.

“Farm Aid has deep roots in the Midwest that reach back to our first concert in Illinois in 1985,” says Willie Nelson, the organization’s president. “I’m looking forward to bringing my friends together on the Farm Aid stage to celebrate family farmers and the crucial work they do. Farmers do so much more than bring us the good food we all want to eat. America needs family farmers to revitalize our economy and make our country healthy.”

Presented by Horizon Organic, the event will once again feature HOMEGROWN concessions, with foods from regional family farms and local organic growers. The HOMEGROWN Village will host hands-on activities that give concertgoers a chance to meet family farmers and get their hands dirty.

“Family farmers are innovative entrepreneurs who safeguard our food, environment and health,” says Carolyn Mugar, Farm Aid’s executive director. “Since the beginning, Farm Aid has worked with family farmers in the Midwest to keep them on the land, especially in the face of factory farms that have threatened to take over food production. At Farm Aid, concertgoers will reap the benefits of this work and will experience food grown by Missouri’s family farms.”

Click here for information on Farm Aid’s petition against funding for factory farms.

Farm Aid is sponsoring a petition that calls on the U.S. government to suspend taxpayer funding of factory farms.

As the petition states:

Factory farms pose a real danger to our communities, our natural resources and the livelihood of hardworking family farmers. A current USDA program is funneling taxpayer money to fund new and bigger factory farm operations that lead to the gross overproduction of hogs and poultry. So much livestock is being churned out that it has caused a long-term depression of producer prices, forcing family farmers out of business.

The longer the USDA continues this misguided policy, the greater the threat to small farmers who are already being squeezed in this economy.

By signing the petition, you’ll add your name to a letter that will be sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. It urges the USDA “to suspend all direct or guaranteed farm ownership or operating loans for the construction or expansion of specialized hog or poultry production facilities.”

In other Farm Aid news, there’s still time to order tickets to the Oct. 4 concert in St. Louis, where performers like Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews, Neil Young and Willie Nelson will rock the house. And if you’re a photography buff, consider entering the Farm Fresh Pics photo contest; the winner will receive an expenses-paid trip and two front-row concert tickets.