Farm Aid Board of Directors, (lft
to rt)Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Mellankamp & Dave
Matthews.
Notes
& quotes from our day -
Camden, New Jersey, near Philadelphia,
holds the dubious honor of being the poorest and
most violent city in the United States. It is in
the region known as the Delware Valley an area
with a long and rich tradition of family farming,
but although the city is surrounded by family farms
rich in soils and abundant with crops, it has only one grocery store. Willie
Nelson brought the 21st Annual Farm Aid concert to Camden to shine a light on
the family far.
"We started out trying
to save the family farmer and now it looks like the
family farmer is going to save us. It's important
that we let our family farmers and local economies
start everything and let it build up from there.
By helping our farmer they will help us out of the
economic hole that we find ourselves in today." -Willie
Nelson
Food For Thought
"We started a program called
Food For Thought at my daughter’s
college in Ohio. Farmers in the area started selling their
food to the school cafeteria. The cafeteria started showing
that they had organic or at least home-grown food. They started
cooking it a little differently, not over cooking it and
turning it into boiled ‘stuff’. We have a little
foothold there – I’d like to see it go into every
college. Here we have the answers to our problem: We need
new blood. We need smart people to start using their education,
their understanding of our capitalistic system, and to start
using their knowledge to restore the good food system that
we originally had." — Neil
Young
The Boston Globe has described David
Amram as "the Renaissance man of American
music." He has composed over 100 orchestral and chamber works, written two
operas, many scores for theater and films, including Splendor in the Grass and The
Manchurian Candidate.
He plays French horn, piano, guitar, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion,
and a variety
of folkloric instruments from 25 countries. He travels the globe with his music
and returns home to tend his farm in upstate New York.
Every year he joins up with Willie Nelson to support Farm Aid.
"Whether you meet an environmentalist or someone who’s
an agronomist or someone who’s a fan of country music
or jazz or rock. Everyone understands that the reason we are
here at Farm Aid is not only to have a good time but also to
help out the family farmers."
David at his roadside stand
where he sells his organic produce from his farm in upstate
New York. Photo/David Amram
"I feel as strongly about farming and the people who are farmers as I do
about people who I work with in music. I was brought up on a farm, it’s
just something like music that gets in your blood. Seeing a farm, a family farm,
not a factory farm, but something that’s run with love and care, is as
beautiful a work of art as any painting or any symphony. It’s real, it’s
universal, and it’s something that we all came from." — David
Amram
Young Farmers
"It’s inspiring to see young people going into farming
with a vision for possibility. There’s not
a broken
heart – which I think has happened to a lot of farming
families… Our young people farmers are saving our
food and helping our communities and also saving the planet,
all the things that we should be most concerned about." —
Dave Matthews
Camden holds the
dubious honor of being the poorest and most violent city
in the US. More than 600,000 Delaware Valley residents live
below the federal povery line and are at risk for hunger
or malnutrition.
It's amazing to realize that despite
bounty in the Delaware Valley countryside, Camden has only
one grocery store and becuase of that many of the urban residents
have a difficult time finding fresh food.
The Lunch Lady
" Research says that one out of every three Caucasians and one of every
two Hispanics and African Americans six year olds that started school across
American in the last two weeks, will have diabetes in their lifetime. Most before
they are eighteen. And why is it ? – because they are not eating fruits
and vegetables – all the great farmed food. What I want to do is teach
kids across America what good food choices are, how important family farms are,
and how they can live a long healthy life." —
Ann Cooper "The Lunch Lady"
Vendors at the Camden Farmers Market
/2006. photo KS
Philabundance is
a great organization working to end hunger and malnutrition
in the Delaware Valley by rescuing surplus food and distributing
it to local organizations serving people in need. Approximately
27% of the food produced in the U.S. goes to waste each year
while millions of people go hungry. Philabundance works to
change this contradiction. photo: Davia interviews Bill Clark from Philabundance
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