{"id":5359,"date":"2025-09-22T02:35:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/willie-nelson-farm-aid-2025-best-moments\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T02:35:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T02:35:17","slug":"willie-nelson-farm-aid-2025-best-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/willie-nelson-farm-aid-2025-best-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Nelson\u2019s 40th Anniversary Farm Aid Challenges Corporate Power in America: \u2018They Need to Stand Up and Pay a Conscience Tax!\u2019 Says Neil\u00a0Young"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tFarm Aid 40, held Saturday (Sept. 20) in Minneapolis and headlined by founding musicians Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young, is expected to be the most successful benefit for family farmers by the organization in many years, as sales of 36,232 tickets at Huntington Bank Stadium are added to contributions solicited on air during a five-plus-hour broadcast of the event on CNN.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for Neil Young, it won\u2019t be enough.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s one of the highlights of my life to have been part of this,\u201d said Young, flanked by Nelson and Mellencamp, and joined by fellow Farm Aid board members Dave Matthews and Margo Price, at Farm Aid\u2019s morning press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t40 Great Moments From 40 Years of Willie Nelson\u2019s Farm Aid: \u2018It\u2019s the Music and the Message That Opens Up People\u2019s\u00a0Hearts\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\t\u201cThat said, there\u2019s one thing that really strikes me about this day. And what I would like to say is, we need money so we can give it to the farmers and support the farmers. And we need to get it from these big corporations and billionaires that have taken all the farmers\u2019 land or a great portion of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe want donations from them,\u201d said Young. \u201cHuge donations to Farm Aid. We don\u2019t want to give them favors. They bought hundreds and thousands of acres of farmland in this country as investments. And they\u2019re living the good life. They need to stand up and pay a conscience tax to the farmers of America!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 40th anniversary of Farm Aid and its mission \u2014 to build and strengthen a family farm-centered agricultural system in America that values family farmers, good food, soil, water, climate and strong communities \u2014 was celebrated Saturday with more than 12 hours of music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to Farm Aid\u2019s board members, the remarkable bill included: Bob Dylan, Kenny Chesney, Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson, Trampled by Turtles, Wynonna Judd, Steve Earle, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards and the Wisdom Indian Dancers.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Willie Nelson launched Farm Aid in 1985, amid an economic crisis that was forcing family farms into bankruptcy, the organization recognized that the nation\u2019s agriculture system was suffering from the consolidation of economic power and rise of corporate control. Forty years on, the same corporate forces affect almost every aspect of American life, from health care to housing to its news media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFarmers, growing the nation\u2019s food, saw the storm clouds first.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were kids when we started this thing,\u201d said Mellencamp at the press conference. \u201cWe were young kids and we had ideals. We were so naive that we thought we would do one show and they\u2019d pay attention to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWillie and I went to Washington, in front of the Senate subcommittee on farming. Willie talked and I talked and some f\u2014ing senator stood up and goes, \u2018Where\u2019s your guys\u2019 guitars?\u2019 I looked at Willie and I said, \u2018Let\u2019s get the hell outta here.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tone in Washington, D.C., has hardly improved over Farm Aid\u2019s 40 years. It weighed on Margo Price\u2019s mind before her performance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s so important for us to come together, right now, in America,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re being divided. We\u2019re being distracted. Our voices are being silenced. And apathy isn\u2019t it. They want us to be overwhelmed. They want us to be fighting with each other so we don\u2019t realize that it\u2019s the people in power that are making all of these things terrible. We have to use our voice while we still have it. Shared struggle builds solidarity and hope is an act of resistance.\u00a0Keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShared struggle\u201d is the perfect way to describe Farm Aid\u2019s forty years of activism to support family farmers. With fans traveling from cities or farms, red states or blue states, Farm Aid on Saturday night in Minneapolis may well have been the most politically diverse \u2014 yet unified \u2014 place in America. <\/p>\n

\n\tHere are best things we saw and heard at Farm Aid 40:<\/p>\n