“The only difference between a pigeon and the American farmer today is that a pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere.”
- Jim Hightower
Today is the 41st anniversary of the first Farm Aid concert. I remember where I was on September 22nd, 1985. I was with a girl in the stands at Busch Stadium II watching the Cardinals play the Montreal Expos in a tight pennant race . Tommy Herr came to the plate and hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. Walk it off, baby! Bedlam in the late afternoon St. Louis sun.
She and I headed back to Springfield where we were starting our senior years at Southwest Missouri State. On the way we tuned in to the simulcast of the inaugural Farm Aid concert being held in Champaign, Illinois. It was a big deal. Some favorite heavy weight musicians at the height of their power had come together and organized the event to raise money and awareness for the plight of family farmers: Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and John Mellencamp. Mellencamp, most of all, had been carrying the torch for the cause for some time. His Scarecrow album had been released a month earlier, which contained his psalm for small, struggling farmers, Rain on the Scarecrow. His hit, Small Town, was on there too, a tribute to his rural upbringing.
I say it was a big deal then, at least it was to me, anyway. I was raised on a family farm in Northeast Missouri and I knew well how hard the life was and the difficulty of making a nickel. I never cared for farm life and was glad to escape it, but my roots and experience made me fully aware of what was going on in America. At the time, my mother and dad were still toiling away on the farm that had been in our family for several generations. Land, equipment prices and operating costs had skyrocketed to the point that many smaller farmers could no longer make a go of it. They were selling out to huge ag companies. Farm conglomerates were doing to small farmers what Walmart was doing to small business owners, driving them out all together.
Let's face it, though, farming is not the sexiest of causes, so to have some rock stars take notice was inspiring and appreciated. They were making farming kinda cool. In addition to those big name organizers, artists Johnny Cash, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn, Foreigner, John Fogerty and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed that day to help raise over 9 million dollars in 1985 money. Since then the yearly event has brought in over 90 million dollars that has been distributed in a number of different ways to assist small independent farmers.
When it comes to big fundraising organizations, I'm jaded and suspicious. Too many times we learn of contributions going to “administrative costs” and people at the top living large off of stolen donations. From what I can learn, it seems that Farm Aid has remained on the up and up. Eighty-one cents of every dollar given goes directly to helping the cause of struggling farmers. 41 years on, it's still doing good work.
It's a noble cause. Thanks to everyone for trying to help out. Oh, and thanks Tommy Herr for the memory.