If you know me well, then you must know how excited I am to share with you the news that Farm Aid 2021 will be IN-PERSON at Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday, September 25!
It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to gather together to celebrate our family farmers, and after a year like 2020, it’s time we show them just how essential we think they are. I can’t wait to take the stage again with my fellow board members and friends Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, and I’m proud to add Margo Price to that list. She’s been a great supporter of Farm Aid over the years and knows firsthand how devastating the loss of a family farm can be.
Margo’s story is all too familiar to those of us who’ve been trying to keep family farmers on the land since Farm Aid began more than 35 years ago. Like so many others, her family’s farm in Illinois was lost to the Farm Crisis back in 1984. It was that Farm Crisis that led me to start Farm Aid the following year. Since then, I’ve taken the stage with hundreds of other artists to raise our voices in support of our family farmers and ranchers.
Farm Aid is far more than just our annual festival, of course. Every day, farmers call the Farm Aid hotline or visit the Farmer Resource Network to be connected to resources they can use to access new markets, credit, land, legal advice, financial counseling and other critical tools they need to thrive. When natural disasters or other hardships strike, Farm Aid provides emergency assistance to keep the lights on and food on the table.
And Farm Aid works year-round to strengthen family farm agriculture and advocate for fair farm policies that promote resiliency, sustainability, equity and diversity across our food system. But Farm Aid can’t do all this work without people like you.
Your support makes all the difference and allows Farm Aid to continue to fight to keep family farmers on the land where they belong. Won’t you please make a donation right now? With your generous gift of $75 or more, we’d like to send you an official Farm Aid 2021 T-shirt so you can proudly show your support of family farmers.
The pandemic revealed just how essential those who work the land around us really are. They provide us with the good food we all need, strengthen our communities, and steward our soil, water and climate. From dawn to dusk they work, despite uncertainty that all their efforts will sustain them in return.
Family farmers in the Northeast face many of the same challenges as those across the country. They’ve suffered through years of a tough farm economy with low crop and livestock prices, market disruptions due to policies and the pandemic, unpredictable and extreme weather, barriers to accessing land, credit and markets – the list is long. But the greatest threat to independent farmers is a small number of mega-corporations that just keep getting bigger and influencing our political and agricultural systems in ways that aren’t fair to anyone. Farmers love what they do and all they want is a fair shake like the rest of us.
There’s something you can do about it. Please join me in by standing up for family farmers and ranchers to show them we’re here for them after all they do for us! Your gift in any amount makes a real difference.
We hope that you’ll join us in supporting our family farmers – either in Hartford for Farm Aid 2021, by tuning in to the Farm Aid webcast, or by making a donation to support family farmers and ranchers right now.
Stay Strong and Positive,
P.S. Don’t forget – donate now and we’ll send an official Farm Aid 2021 T-shirt in the size you select as our thanks for your generous gift of $75 or more.
P.P.S. I’m also honored that my wife, Annie Nelson, has agreed to help out on our board, too. Annie has been a strong and supportive advocate for family farmers by my side all these years and grows lots of good food for our own table!
