Q. What do Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, Margo Price, and Flower Hill Institute have in common?
A. They will all be participating in the 41st annual Farm Aid Festival in Virginia Beach, VA, this Saturday, September 26.
Willie, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young launched Farm Aid in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois, to raise funds to support family farms going bankrupt in droves at the height of what is still known as the “Farm Crisis”. They hoped it would be a one-time event. The need in Rural America persisted, so Farm Aid persevered.
It has evolved into an established nonprofit organization that distributes nearly $1.5 million annually to organizations and programs supporting family farms, ranches, and rural communities nationwide. Farm Aid also operates a Farm Crisis hotline and disseminates information to help farmers connect with needed resources. Flower Hill Institute and Farm Aid established a Memorandum of Understanding in 2022 to collaborate on efforts to support smaller meat and poultry processors.
Nearly all of that money is generated at the annual Farm Aid festival each September with a concert featuring the current board of Nelson, Mellencamp, Young, Dave Matthews, Margo Price, Nathanial Rateliff, and other musicians. This year’s festival will run from 11:30 a.m. until the closing act on Saturday at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach.
Though Farm Aid is best known as a concert, the HOMEGROWN Village is a major part of the festival each year. There, the roughly 25,000 festival-goers can attend a variety of workshops and presentations and connect with organizations supporting family agriculture and independent food businesses in Rural America.
Flower Hill Institute’s Regional Directors Chris Roper and Dave Carter have been part of the HOMEGROWN Village since 2022. They will be in Virginia Beach this Saturday to visit with attendees about the critical role independent meat and poultry processors play in our food supply chain and national food security.
Roper noted, “Each year, we’ve had an opportunity to catch up with MPPTA clients, to introduce the availability of our no-cost technical assistance to other processors, and to educate the public about the critical link smaller businesses provide in connecting independent livestock producers with shoppers who value clean, healthy, locally grown and processed meat and poultry.”
Carter added, “If you are planning on attending this year’s Farm Aid, stop by our booth at the HOMEGROWN Village to test your knowledge on our Livestock Spin Wheel and chat with us. Then, head off to grab a famous pork chop sandwich at the Patchwork Family Farms’ food booth and enjoy a great concert.”
