Farm Aid: A Musical Celebration of Farm-Fresh Food

On Saturday, October 1st, we spent the day at Miller Park for the 25th  Anniversary Farm Aid Concert. According to Farm Aid's official website, over the years, "Farm Aid has raised more than $37 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture." The non-profit works to keep family farms on their land and to raise an awareness of the loss of family farms as corporations get larger and larger.
A few super cool aspects of Farm Aid in comparison to other concerts:
1. Throughout the day, there is a Homegrown Village which hosts a number of local farmers, organizations involved in the local food movement, and CSAs. Will Allen was there in the Growing Power stand, but we missed seeing him by minutes.

2. The concessions serve local and organic food instead of the usual chemical-laden, mysterious-origin, regular junk. There were veggie hot dogs, local brats, local burgers, and so on. Even the french fries were local and organic. They were serving popped sorghum too!
3. All day long, musicians talk about food issues! Music and like-minded musicians and fans: what could be better?

We were very close, so yes, these are our actual pictures of the day. Here are some of our highlights:

Willie Nelson and Amos Lee

Band of Horses

Jason Mraz ~ Andy took this one for his co-worker, who is a HUGE fan (wink).

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco

Tim Reynolds and Dave Matthews

Neil Young

Norah Jones

A screen shot of John Mellencamp and Dave singing "Homegrown" - Willie Nelson and Neil Young were also a party of the song. 

Farm Aid was better than we anticipated! It was a celebration of farmers and local eating, but also a call to action for change. Farmers are losing their land every day (as many of the musicians noted). It's important, as Neil Young said a number of times to "Read the Label!" Know where your food comes from. Be sure you're eating foods that come directly from nature and from the United States. Large corporations are exploiting the land, the workers, animals, and us, the consumers. Eating locally is more compassionate and kind. This event reinforced all of these principles. We're so glad we went, and we're hoping it's close next year.