Farm Aid
Identification Nonprofit organization and benefit
concerts
Date Organization established August, 1985;
concerts held September 22, 1985, July 4, 1986,
and September 19, 1987
Place Champaign, Illinois; Austin, Texas; and
Lincoln, Nebraska
Farm Aid raised money on behalf of struggling U.S. farm-
ers. It provided those farmers with information, access to
services, and financial support during the farm crisis.
Inspired by the July, 1985, Live Aid concerts, singer
Willie Nelson contacted Neil Young and John Cou-
gar Mellencamp to establish the Farm Aid organiza-
tion and plan a benefit concert to help farmers suf-
fering during the agricultural crisis of the 1980’s.
Nelson aspired for music to bring urban and rural
people together, educating them about farmers’
problems.
On September 22, 1985, the first Farm Aid
concert has held. Nelson and Young opened the
show, performing a song in tribute to farmers. Ap-
proximately eighty thousand people gathered in
Champaign, at the University of Illinois’s Memorial
Stadium, to hear more than fifty musicians, most in-
corporating farm themes in their songs. Farmers at-
tended in groups, some riding the Farm Aid Express
train from Iowa to Champaign. Some performers
told audience members to ask their congressional
representatives to promote legislation supporting
family farmers. The Nashville Network’s live broad-
cast of the concert reached an audience of 24 mil-
lion people on cable television. Approximately three
hundred television stations and four hundred radio
stations aired portions of the Farm Aid concert.
Within a week, Farm Aid distributed $100,000 from
the concert to groups and farmers in seventeen
states for food and other uses. Farm Aid received a
total of $7 million from the concert and post-concert
donations. Nelson stated some money would be
used to establish a hotline, provide legal advice, and
assist farmers stripped of land to secure new employ-
ment.
Nelson had believed only one Farm Aid concert
would be necessary, but the farm crisis continued.
He welcomed forty-five thousand concertgoers to
Farm Aid II on July 4, 1986, at Manor Downs race-
track outside Austin, Texas. The following year, ap-
proximately seventy thousand people attended Farm
Aid III on September 19, 1987, at the University of
Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Nelson
told the audience that two hundred U.S. farms were
lost daily, stressing the urgency of continuing to help
farmers. Instead of staging another centralized con-
cert in 1989, Nelson included Farm Aid as a compo-
nent of sixteen of his regular concerts throughout
the United States, arranging for press conferences
with farmers to increase awareness of the farm crisis
and each area’s concerns.
Impact During the 1980’s, Farm Aid raised over
eleven million dollars to help farmers, providing re-
sources for disaster assistance, medical care, and
other relief. Farm Aid gave a $250,000 grant to fund
the United Farmer and Rancher Congress at St.
Louis, Missouri, in September, 1986, where agricul-
turists discussed improving farm policies. In June,
1987, Nelson and Mellencamp were called before
Congress to describe Farm Aid’s impact on the na-
tion’s farmers. Farm Aid helped finance such groups
as National Save the Family Farm Coalition, which
worked to seek agricultural reforms. As the agricul-
tural economy slowly improved, Farm Aid focused
on enhancing the quality of farm products and
methods.
Further Reading
George-Warren, Holly, ed.Farm Aid: A Song for Amer-
ica. Introduction by Eric Schlosser. Music essays
by Dave Hoekstra. Concert photography by Paul
Natkin and Ebet Roberts. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale,
2005.
Greenhouse, Steven. “Musicians Give Concert to
Aid Nation’s Farmers.”The New York Times, Sep-
tember 23, 1985, p. A16.
“Harvest Song: Willie Plans a Benefit.”Time 126
(September 23, 1985): 32.
Elizabeth D. SchaferSee also Agriculture in the United States; Cable
television; Country music; Farm crisis; Food Security
Act of 1985; Live Aid; Mellencamp, John Cougar;
Music.The Eighties in America Farm Aid 355