I'm Going to Farm Aid... You Can Too (Remotely)
A guide to tuning in to the inspiration, information and entertainment (of course)
ICYMI… Our New Local Food Forum Website is Live
If you haven’t had the chance to check out the new Local Food Forum website — which launched yesterday — I hope you will. The website complements this ongoing Substack newsletter, providing a home for all the content we’ve published over the past 2-1/2 years (and all new content, of course), and the space and flexibility to create an endless number of new features.
It’s really beautiful to look at… thanks again to the 44 Larkmoor Creative design team. But it’s also in soft launch mode, and we need feedback. Your suggestions are welcome (there is a section near the bottom of the home page for you to send comments). We can always do better.
Now scroll down and read about the first new big event that will be featured on the new website.
Can’t Get Indiana Off My Mind
I’m taking a drive today to attend tomorrow’s Farm Aid Festival at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana, a few miles north of Indianapolis.
The 2015 Farm Aid event in Chicago, which I attended representing the non-profit then known as FamilyFarmed, was a lifetime experience. I have no reason to think that tomorrow’s festival — aimed at celebrating and preserving small farms and local food communities and building a more equitable food system — won’t be another.
Farm Aid was created by musicians Willie Nelson, Neil Young and (Indiana native) John Mellencamp in the midst of the 1980s farm crisis that cost many farmers their land and livelihood, driving a number to desperation. Over the years since — with performers Dave Matthews and Margo Price joining the core team — Farm Aid has been the highest-profile advocate and a huge benefactor to family farmers across the nation.
If you are also attending Farm Aid, please let me know… I would love to connect.
If, like most folks, you are unable to attend, you still can — remotely. The instructions to tune in, beginning at 11:30 a.m. eastern (10:30 central) are in the Farm Aid graphic above.
And since many Local Food Forum readers are activists and advocates for a better food system, you might want to tune in today to Farm Aid’s series of panel discussions — livestreamed on Farm Aid’s You Tube channel — that are already under way (sorry about the late notice) and continue until 3 p.m. central.
There are two policy-focused discussions: A Farmer Forum and The People’s Hearing. The forum will consist of two panels that explore the policy needs and implications of Indiana’s culture of agriculture, as well its benefits to our planet and its people. The People’s Hearing will feature witnesses from individuals across the country, discussing corporate power, climate science and racial justice. Members of the audience will have an opportunity to submit their testimony.
Forum Panels
The Culture of Agriculture in Indiana
From Regenerative to Restorative: The Right to Food Sovereignty in Indiana
People’s Hearing
Confronting Corporate Power Witnesses
Climate Science Witnesses
Racial Justice Witnesses
Read all about it next week in this newsletter and the new Local Food Forum website.
And about the headline on this story? It’s the title of a song composed in 1940 by jazz great Hoagy Carmichael, a native of Bloomington, Indiana.