![]() In September, Farm Aid joined more than 150 organizations in co-signing a letter asking President Biden “to weigh in on the next Farm Bill and demand that Congress build even further on the administration’s actions to date to reduce economic inequality bridge the nation’s racial divides end hunger confront the climate crisis improve nutrition and food safety and protect and support farmers, workers, and communities,” wrote Farm Aid communications director Jennifer Fahy. The most recent Farm Bill was passed in 2018 and expires this year. The spark for the gathering is the current debate over the contents of the Farm Bill, the multi-part, multibillion-dollar legislation that is passed by Congress about every five years and has a massive influence on how the nation’s food is grown. ![]() Plans for this rally were revealed at the Farm Aid festival in Raleigh, N.C., in September and exclusively reported by Billboard. On Wednesday, participants in the rally are slated to lobby individual lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The Rally for Resistance: Farmers for Climate Action was organized under the umbrella of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and involved some two dozen activist organizations and more than 30 delegations of farmers from across the country who converged on Washington to make their voices heard. But this week’s gathering dramatically demonstrated that the breadth and scope of the nation’s farm movement transcends Farm Aid. Paul Morigi/GI for National Sustainable Agriculture Coalitionįarm Aid, with its annual concerts each September, may be the highest-profile organization drawing attention to the state of American agriculture - and Willie Nelson is certainly the nation’s best-known champion of family farmers. Capitol after the Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience in Freedom Plaza on Main Washington, DC. championed what is known as regenerative farming, agriculture methods that can hold carbon in the soil, enhance biodiversity and help mitigate climate change.Ĭlimate activists march to the U.S. In a report in August 2021, the National Resources Defense Council stated that industrial agriculture is a “significant source” of carbon in the atmosphere. In recent years, there also has been an increasing awareness that industrial agriculture practiced on large corporate farms is contributing to the climate crisis. This land fed a nation / this land made me proudĪnd son, I’m just sorry there’s no legacy for you nowįarm Aid’s own legacy is the rising awareness, since the mid-1980s, of the importance of a national system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities. Rain on the scarecrow / blood on the plow With that, Mellencamp played a spare, acoustic rendition of “Rain on the Scarecrow,” his harrowing 1985 song about the farm foreclosure crisis that led to the creation of Farm Aid. And I think that’s great that there are younger people trying to improve the planet and the food that we eat. ![]() Taking the stage midday at Freedom Park, Mellencamp looked at the crowd before him and remarked: “The faces are much younger than they used to be. “Let’s try to improve the quality of the food that we eat, the air that we breathe and the people that we are.” “We’ve been slugging since 1985 and let’s keep slugging,” said Mellencamp.
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