Farm Aid takes place this weekend

Sep 16, 2016

Music festival being held in Bristow, Virginia

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Some of music’s biggest names are coming to Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia on Saturday, September 17 for the 31^st annual Farm Aid concert.

The first concert was organized in 1985 by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp. It was done to raise money to help keep farm families on their land.

Thirty-one years later and the concert continues to help farmers by promoting food from family farms, growing the local food movement, helping farmers thrive and taking action to change the system by working with local, regional and national organizations to promote fair farm policies and grassroots organizing campaigns designed to defend farmers.

“Folks are educating themselves about where and how food is grown – they’re hungry for the truth,” Willie Nelson said in a statement on Farm Aid’s website. “Family farmers bring us good food, protect our soil and water, and strengthen our country. The Farm Aid concert is a day for us to honor that truth and keep working for family farmers.”

Artists expected to perform include Lukas Nelson, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Alabama Shakes, Dave Matthews and Margo Price.

Unable to make it to Virginia for the concert? No problem. It will be streamed on Farm Aid’s YouTube channel and Facebook Live.

According to the organization, nearly $50 million has been raised by Farm Aid since 1985.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.