Farm Aid Music Monday, Starring Neil Young

Today's Music Monday brings you Farm Aid co-founder and board member Neil Young's entire set from our 10th Anniversary concert in 1995. The concert was held on October 1 at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. I've enjoyed a lot of Farm Aid performances over the years, but this one ranks up among my favorites. I hope you'll like it too, and to help ensure that, Neil is joined by Willie Nelson and Mickey Raphael for two of the songs toward the end.

Find more Farm Aid videos on our YouTube channel.

Ethan's Farm and Food Roundup

Young farmers are worried that this year's Farm Bill is going to leave them out. After the announcement of a 50% cut to the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act, the Farm Bill's focus seems to be more politics as usual, with the focus on large and established agricultural interests. Making sure our farm system encourages and enables new farmers to get on the land is critical; as the article begins, "By the time the next Farm Bill expires in five years, 125,000 American farmers will have retired. This fact may well be the biggest threat to national food security..."

Vermont has become the first state to ban hydrofracking, bypassing a moratorium and moving straight to a law preventing the practice. Although Vermont is not know for its natural gas deposits, it hopes to get the ball rolling for other states that are on the fence about fracking and its environmental impacts.

The $1.25 billion settlement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a group of African American farmers over discriminatory lending practices in the 1980s and 90s is now coming to a close, with today being the deadline to file claims. "Many of these farmers lost their land and their livelihoods. With the settlement, there seems to be a sense that finally there's at least an acknowledgement of what was done," said Gregorio Francis, the farmers' co-lead counsel.

Texan Julia Trigg Crawford stood strong for years against offers by TransCanada to lease part of her family's 600-acre farm to the company so that it could complete its Keystone XL pipeline. But recently she had to give in when the company gave their final offer: Take the money, or we'll take the land by eminent domain. Now Julia and her family are concerned that leaks from the pipeline, which will carry 590,000 barrels of crude oil a day, will destroy their farm.

Last week, the University of Illinois' College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) in Champaign-Urbana accepted a $250,000 grant from Monsanto to create an endowed chair for the "Agricultural Communications Program" it runs with the College of Communications. In this article, Tom Philpott looks at the phenomenon of food and agrichemical industries financing and using our national public agricultural research infrastructure as their own research and marketing departments.

The Farm Worker Safety Act of 2012 has been proposed in California, requiring that farmers provide their workers with adequate water and shade during the summer harvest. The bill would also allow workers to file complaints and advocate for better working conditions with more consideration than has been given in the past.

It turns out that growing up on a farm has some distinct advantages for your health. This study from the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that Amish children who grew up on a farm developed a much stronger resistance to common allergens and the onset of asthma.

Farm Aid Music Monday, Starring Will Dailey at the Farm Aid Office

On April 26, we had a special day in the Farm Aid office. Will Dailey and Dave Brophy paid a visit and performed a little concert for us and people around the world via live webcast. I captured (most of) it on my camera and/or cellphone, so it's not quite the HD quality I usually like to present, but it should give you a flavor of what it was like in the office that day.

Will performed some of the original songs (which you may have seen on stage at a Farm Aid concert) along with a few covers, like "Rain on the Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp and "Don't Cry No Tears" by Neil Young. Below, you can watch Will's performance including those songs along with the original artists performing them at past Farm Aid concerts. Enjoy!

Find more Farm Aid videos on our YouTube channel.

Ethan's Farm and Food Roundup

The Obama administration has decided to withdraw its proposal for a new child labor law that would place restrictions on children working on family farms. The President made the decision after tough criticism from farmers across the country.

Dow AgroSciences has rolled out a new genetically modified type of corn under the name "Enlist" but nicknamed "Agent Orange Corn" by opponents. The corn has been engineered to be immune to 2,4- Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, a potent herbicide containing chemicals that are found in the Agent Orange toxin. And it's not just environmentalists who are worried about the potential impact of Enlist.

A Chicago meat packing plant is going to be turned into a net-zero-energy vertical farm when the empty space is equipped with plants, mushrooms, a fish farm, bakeries and breweries. The idea is to use the waste from each one of these elements as food for another, creating a sustainable circle of production.

Obesity in America is costing us a lot more than we think: $190 billion every year in health costs to be exact. And with rising rates of obesity annually, we are on the fast track to some serious future spending. You know what we have to say about that: Eat good food from family farmers for good health!

A recent study published in Nature on the production and yields of industrial agriculture versus organic agriculture has brought on a slew of debates about which system is right for our country. Tom Philpott takes a look at the various responses to the study and critiques its focus on only yield. At Philpott concludes, "I fear that a lot of policy makers and pundits will glance at the Nature study and conclude that at least the agricultural part of our food system isn't broken and doesn't need fixing. They're wrong."

A former Perdue chicken farmer who was featured in Food, Inc. has decided to take a different approach to farming by ditching her contract and starting a pastured egg operation. Carole Morison loves her new work, explaining, "There’s no one breathing down your neck saying you have to do it this way, no you can’t do it that way. You don’t have to feel bad about what you’re doing.”

Farm Aid Music Monday: Happy Birthday Willie Nelson!

Today's Music Monday was an easy pick; it's Willie Nelson's birthday! And just ten days ago, the city of Austin, Texas unveiled a new statue honoring Willie's contributions to music and work for causes like Farm Aid over his long career. Both of those occasions had me digging through the Farm Aid archives to bring something new, so here is Willie's performance at the tenth anniversary Farm Aid concert in 1995.

Watch Willie's set in this six-song video playlist:

Find more Farm Aid videos on our YouTube channel.

Ethan's Farm and Food Roundup

The first case of Mad Cow Disease since 2006 was confirmed on Tuesday in California, spawning some serious public worry about the area’s beef and dairy products. The cow’s disease was discovered almost completely by chance in a random testing of dead cows that came through the transfer facility in Hanford, California, and has raised additional concern from the public about our nation’s system for recognizing deadly diseases like Mad Cow Disease.

In an effort to cut down their dependence on foreign markets and satisfy the increased level of meat consumption in the last decade, China is importing millions of live animals to build up its breeding stock, rather than just importing meat. By taking this step, China will move from a conventional backyard farm system to a more modernized and consolidated operations to keep up with the country’s demand.

Burger King has become the first major U.S. fast food chain pledging to move over to cage-free pork and chickens by 2017. The company has decided to make the move based on customer response and also the industry-wide shift towards animal welfare. “It’s proven that consumers are willing to pay a little bit more for fairness, whether it’s to humans or animals,” said food industry analyst Phil Lempert.

The Obama administration released a report on Thursday regarding a “Bioeconomy Blueprint” that would increase funding for biotech research and development in our country in the coming years. Biotech companies praised the administration for the report, saying that it will help reduce restrictions and help reform the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. To read the full “Bioeconomy" report, click here.

A dairy cow from Colorado caught some attention when she wandered from her pen and made her way down to the local McDonald’s drive-thru. Local police located the cow, named Darcy, and she was returned back to the farm shortly after.

Hey folks, it’s Farm Bill time!

The Farm Bill is a piece of legislation that often feels like it’s either too early or too late to get involved in. But if there were ever a prime time to weigh in on the 2012 Farm Bill, it’s now. And by now, we mean today!

Here's the quick update: Last Friday, the Senate Agriculture Committee released their draft of the 2012 Farm Bill. This is welcome movement, as the current Farm Bill is set to expire in September, and getting new legislation to pass amidst the budgetary and election pressures at play this year is a big deal for the interests of family farmers and the good food movement. The draft itself is a mixed bag. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition provides a great breakdown of the good, the “half-baked” and the ugly for issues of rural development and local food, research, beginning farmers and organic agriculture. When it comes to conservation programs, the outlook is pretty dismal.

The Senate Ag Committee is set to “mark up” the bill tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25th. During this time, members can raise and vote on amendments to change the bill, providing an important opening to improve the bill for family farmers, eaters and the future of sustainable and organic production. If the Committee is to meet its timeline of sending an agreed upon draft to the Senate Floor by Memorial Day, the majority of what comes out of mark up this week will inevitably serve as the core of our next Farm Bill. In other words, now is a crucial time to impact Farm Bill deliberations.

So, what to do in the next 24 hours?

If you live in a state with a Senate Ag Committee member (AR, CO, GA, IA, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MS, MT, ND, NE, NY, OH, PA, SD, VT), call your Senator and tell them that you want a Farm Bill that rewards farmers for taking care of the land, that puts fresh, healthy food in our schools and neighborhoods, that helps young people get into farming and that restores fairness for farmers in the marketplace. You can point them to two small but important marker bills: the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act and the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act. A great new website, www.farmbillprimer.org, offers maps of the different congressional ag committees with contact information for members in your state.

You can also sign on as a citizen endorser of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s 2012 Farm Bill platform.

And if you need some brushing up on the Farm Bill, now’s as good a time as any. Check out Farm Aid’s Farm Bill page for a good primer (look for the study guide link at the bottom of the page). Remember, the Farm Bill affects us all, every day. We need everyone to get involved!

"Wheat Dollars" photo from Bigstock.