What the Hell is Farm Aid? | Opinion

Photo byFarm Aid

Boy, I'm glad you asked. A people's history of the chicken-fried music festival for America's farmers.

Welcome back, my fellow Americans, to "Boy, I'm Glad You Asked," where I break down important things — or just things I’m a big, big nerd about — into regular-people terms.

In this instance of Boy, I'm Glad You Asked, we're going to be talking about my personal favorite music festival — Farm Aid. What it is, where it comes from, where does it go (where does it come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?), and what it’s all about.

To really understand Farm Aid — and how it came about — I’m going to have to drag you into the wayback machine and take a trip to 1985, at a different Aid. Live Aid.

Wembley Stadium’s Live Aid poster, featuring the art of one Peter Blake, 1985. Wikimedia Commons.

Do They Know It’s Christmas Down in Africaaaaaaa

Live Aid is where Farm Aid borrowed its surname from.

What’s Live Aid?!, I hear you shrieking.

First of all, simmer down. I’m getting to that.

Second of all — it was another benefit concert, but not for farmers. It was to raise money for the people of Ethiopia, who were really going through it between 1983 and 1985, during a particularly bad famine in the country. Ethiopia’s climate leaves it prone to famines anyway — but the 1983 famine was the worst to hit the country in a century.

It’s not hyperbolic to say it was an humanitarian disaster of epic proportions. According to U.N. numbers, around a million people died, solely as a result of famine, in just three years.

Irish songwriter Bob Geldof and Scots songwriter and producer Midge Ure wrote a song to raise awareness — and money for aid — in 1984, titled “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” releasing in December of ‘84.

This sparked major awareness of the famine, and soon after, the beginnings of what would be a multi-venue, “worldwide jukebox,” festival would be kicked around. That was Live Aid’s conception. It would be hosted in venues around the world simultaneously — the first such event of its kind, and still the only one at that scale (unless you count the pandemic streaming concerts) — on July 13, 1985.

Live Aid had two “official,” venues — London’s Wembley Stadium and New York City’s JFK Stadium. Though demi-official events (that were Live Aid in all but name) were held in the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia, and West Germany.

Between all of them — and being the first concert to be broadcast live worldwide — its estimated nearly 40 percent of the world watched Live Aid in July of ‘85.

What’s this got to do with America’s farms though — and Farm Aid itself?

Well, for that one, you’d have to ask Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan during his set, Live Aid, 1985.

The Times They Were A-Changin’

What would become Farm Aid was born in New York City, at the John F. Kennedy Stadium.

It was the kind of miserably hot NYC summer day you’d expect in July. 95 °F (35 °C for you metric system fans) outside. Madonna’s nudes had just been run in Playboy, and she famously said, “I ain’t taking shit off today!” after being introduced by Bette Midler.

Tom Petty flipped someone off offstage before launching into “American Girl.” Ronnie Wood (of the Rolling Stones) played air guitar. It was a party. That’s where Bob Dylan comes in.

Dylan broke a guitar string during a performance with the Stones, and Ronnie let him borrow his guitar. Ronnie, now without a guitar, decided this was the best opportunity to showcase his mad air guitar skills.

During his set though — Dylan said something that’s since been widely misquoted by Farm Aid (and fans of Dylan).

Farm Aid’s site quoted him as saying "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers right here in America?”

That’s not exactly what happened.

Just before his performance of “When the Ship Comes in,” Dylan said, "I hope that some of the money that's raised for the people in Africa, maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe one or two million, maybe, and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms that the farmers here owe to the banks."

Needless to say — that was somewhat controversial, especially with Bob Geldof, who said in his autobiography, Is That It?:

"He displayed a complete lack of understanding of the issues raised by Live Aid. ... Live Aid was about people losing their lives. There is a radical difference between losing your livelihood and losing your life. It did instigate Farm Aid, which was a good thing in itself, but it was a crass, stupid, and nationalistic thing to say."

But despite being tone deaf (though not quite so much as the “Bum Note Heard Round the World”), and even with Geldof calling him crass, stupid, and nationalistic — it gave some people ideas. People you might’ve heard of.

Willie Nelson performing “On the Road Again,” Farm Aid, 1985.

Waylon and Willie and...John Cougar?

While Jennings the Elder doesn’t come into the story until later — Willie enters here.

Bob Dylan’s controversial statement got Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp thinking that, hey, that’s not a bad idea — but maybe we shouldn’t borrow from the starving kids in Ethiopia to do it.

So the three of them organized a charity to do just what Dylan said — to help small, family farmers keep their farms running. They called it, appropriately enough, Farm Aid.

The timing of this bears mentioning. What Farm Aid itself doesn’t tend to talk about — and certainly an issue swept under the rug in modern political discourse — the 1980s was a very bad time for farmers.

To understand how bad it was, we need to go back a decade to the 1970s.

The 1970s started a bad period for farmers across the world (and this ties into the Carter administration’s infamous memo on climate change — ripples of which we still hear today).

This was due to a lot of things going wrong at once. U.S. grain reserves were lowered — increasing the price of grain. Ethiopia wasn’t the only place suffering famines and low yields into the 80s. The 70s marked one of the worst worldwide grain famines in history. Because of our lowered reserves — and everyone else starving for grain — demand for grain exploded.

This came to a head in 1973, when Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, Earl “Big” Butz (presumably nobody called him that to his face, but I sure would’ve), called upon America’s farms to “Get big or get out,” and plant “fencerow to fencerow.”

While mechanization and big-scale agriculture had been increasingly prevalent since the end of World War II, the 70s marked a big shift into what we know as Big Farma (note: for those of you who’ve followed my work — I prefer this name over Big Agriculture. It’s more appropriate and I like bad puns) today.

By 1974, the average farm size had doubled from 1940’s average. By that time, less than 5 percent of Americans were farmers — but accounting for around 19 percent of the GDP.

This also ties into skyrocketing land values and a minor lending crisis in the 70s.

Lenders and farmers both saw that as a windfall — particularly in industrial-scale farms. They assumed, as was the prevailing economic logic of the time, that this ideal state would be the “new normal.” It wasn’t.

This led into the Savings and Loan Crisis.

This may seem irrelevant — but this marked a flashpoint in the viability (or lack thereof) of small farms.

S&Ls, historically, were a primary lender for small farms. It was a relationship that worked very well for both parties until the 70s. The S&Ls that were had a business model based nearly entirely on long-term, low-interest loans, spread across a broad base of customers. They made a little from a lot of places, and that worked for them — so long as those margins held. They did, mostly, up until the 70s and spiking land prices.

Here, you can see parallels in the housing crisis of the 2000s — driven by poor Fed policy (to nominally offset inflation, which was largely then, as in the 2000s, ineffectual to any but the largest earners and, more importantly, the banks themselves). It was a time of widespread speculation, profiteering, creative loan product packaging, and outright fraud.

Then, as in the 2000s, a lot of bankers got rich — until land prices began to plummet and crop demand dried up.

The primary lenders to small farms fell apart, nearly all savings and loans in the country were shuttered, and it left small famers at the mercy of bigger banks with higher interest rates — or banks that had bought the debt of small farmers from liquidating lenders, and forced refinances at higher rates — leaving those small farmers holding the bag.

The modern “chain banks,” were a product of this era. Many of the old S&Ls were acquired outright by commercial lenders. Commercial lenders, at the time, weren’t primarily into financing real estate — required for farms. They were into business and personal lending — at higher interest rates and with higher requirements.

This led into the farm crisis of the 1980s, with a huge number of family-owned small farms entering default and bankruptcy.

By the mid 80s, when Bob Dylan made his statement to the world at Live Aid, the average debt carried by family farms doubled since 1978, against a 60 percent reduction in land value. Farmers, effectively, owed twice as much to the bank — for land worth less than half as much as when they took the loan.

Bankers never change, do they?

This was the state of things when Dylan made his statement, and Willie, Neil, and John decided to put Farm Aid together. And, put it together they did, and quickly — the very first Farm Aid was held in September of 1985, just two months later.

Farm Aid stage, 1985.

Champaign and Beef-er

The very first Farm Aid went off in Champaign, Illinois on Sept. 22, 1985. Held at Memorial Stadium, it attracted 80,000 people — and a killer lineup for a first-time event:

• Alabama
• John Anderson
• Beach Boys
• The Blasters
• Bon Jovi
• Jimmy Buffett
• Glen Campbell
• Johnny Cash
• David Allan Coe
• John Conlee
• Ry Cooder
• Lacy J. Dalton
• Charlie Daniels
• John Denver
• Bob Dylan
• John Fogerty
• Foreigner
• Vince Gill
• Merle Haggard & the Strangers
• Sammy Hagar
• Daryl Hall
• Don Henley
• Waylon Jennings
• Billy Joel
• George Jones
• Rickie Lee Jones

• B.B. King
• Carole King
• Robbie Krieger
• Kris Kristofferson
• Lone Justice
• Lorreta Lynn
• Delbert McClinton
• John Mellencamp
• Roger Miller
• Joni Mitchell
• Willie Nelson and Family
• Randy Newman
• Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• Roy Orbison
• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
• Bonnie Raitt

• Lou Reed
• Kenny Rogers
• Johnny Rodriguez
• John Schneider
• Bryan Setzer
• Southern Pacific
• Tanya Tucker
• Eddie VanHallen
• Dottie West
• Winter Brothers
• X
• Neil Young & International Harvesters

It did well with the “Aid,” part, too — raising $9 million for family farmers across the country.

While its progenitors hoped it would be enough to have it as a one-off event — obviously, for those of y’all following issues in rural America and in agriculture, that wasn’t the case.

Willie and the boys handed it off to Carolyn Mugar (of the Mugar dynasty of Boston) who’s served as executive director ever since. She was hand-picked by the red-headed stranger himself.

Farm Aid Today

Farm Aid has been an annual concert-music fest-charity event ever since 1985. Every year, it has some of the best roots music has to offer — from Alabama to X (the punk band, not Elon Musk’s emotional support soapbox).

A common misconception about Farm Aid is that it’s just classic rock and country acts — and that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

From the very first lineup to today, it’s included punk (X, for example), the weird and avant garde (the late and fabulous Insects and Robots and the still-going Particle Kid), roots radicals like Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, modern folk acts (Jamestown Revivial), and alt-rock standbys (Alabama Shakes).

This year’s lineup hasn’t been fully announced (but likely will within the next week), but includes:

• Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp
• Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
• Margo Price
• Mavis Staples
• Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
• Lukas Nelson with the Travelin’ McCourys
• Charley Crockett
• Joy Oladokun
• Southern Avenue
• Cassandra Lewis
• Jesse Wells

So It’s Just Music…Right?

Wrong-o, buckaroo.

Farm Aid’s more than a music fest, and has been since 1985.

Apart from having pretty great music — Farm Aid offers a hotline that offers farmers resources, advice, and referrals for farmers going through a rough spot or needing an extra hand: 1-800-FARM-AID (appropriately enough).

They’re also an activist organization for issues in small farms — and also always have been. Willie and John Mellencamp famously brought family farmers before Congress to testify about challenges they were facing — leading to the groundbreaking Agricultural Credit Act of 1987.

It also operates a disaster fund to help farmers pick up the pieces after natural disasters. Farm Aid provided help to victims of Katrina and the 2019 floods, and again this year to victims of flooding in Southeast Texas, among other places.

Funds raised by Farm Aid — from concert-goers, merch-sporters, or kind souls donating — go to pay expenses in times of crisis, food, legal aid, financial help, and psychological assistance. The latter is a huge issue among farmers — both who generally struggle with access to healthcare in general, let alone psychiatric care, and for whom suicide rates and substance abuse issues are extremely high. Farmers are also a demographic who fell into the gaps in the Affordable Care Act — making too little to afford quality private insurance, but making too much to qualify for subsidies in the Exchange.

Wow, That Sounds Pretty Neat-O. How Do I Help? Where’s It At?

This year, Farm Aid is happening Sept. 21, in Saratoga Springs, New York’s Performing Arts Center.

You can find out more about the venue or grab tickets here.

If you, like me, are sad about not being able to make it this year — don’t worry. Farm Aid’s pretty great. They’re offering a free livestream.

It’ll start off with a press event with the artists farmers, and then you can catch the music. You can check out their live webcast on their site, or listen on Sirius XM. You find more about how you can watch and listen direct from Farm Aid.

If you want to see what the vibes are going to be like before you decide — you can check out last year’s clips here.

Want to support Farm Aid in other ways?

Their merch is pretty great, and you can donate to them directly.

This year’s merch hasn’t launched yet — and like the finalized lineup, probably will be within a week or so.

If you’re a little more hands-on and wallet-off — there’s also plenty of other ways you can get involved.

Growing Stronger Together

We are what we eat. One of the things that has been consistently great about America is that there are still places where you can actually know the people growing your food.

Small farms have always been close to the deepest parts of the heart of America. To grow together and to grow stronger together, like Mellencamp would ask, ain’t that America?

Farm Aid helps that happen.

And like most other things — and the tagline of A Boy & His Dog — home’s wherever we’re together. The place we’re safe together, work together, live together — and grow together.

That’s always been the history of Farm Aid.

If you liked this piece, come see me at the place I mentioned — A Boy & His Dog Save America, where I talk about nature, conservation, and rural issues. You can also find Drive-In Radio, where I talk about bad movies, good music, and trashy literature.