“I’m here to sing for Mother Nature tonight,” howled Neil Young to the Farm Aid crowd, and it was an inspired performance to say the least. He criticized all of us young people for thinking “it’s not cool to have a cause,” and he led us in anti-factory farm chants. “NO to factory farms!!”
It was the first I’d ever heard of the evils of the factory farming. I had no idea of the consequences of corporate America’s greed in the agriculture industry: its devastating effects on the environment, the horrific treatment of its “livestock”, the incredibly unhealthy food it produces and the destruction of the family farm as we know it. While it wasn’t until I read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation several years later that I really had my eyes opened to these facts, it was Neil Young who first planted the seed. No pun intended.
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I distinctly remember this night. I think Dave Matthews was the headliner or somebody like that, but I was one of the few people there actually to just see Neil Young. When he came on stage I cried. Thanks for posting this photo/entry!
So glad you liked the post, Ellen! I do love how a photo can so quickly evoke such distinct memories. And yes, Dave Matthews did headline the event. I actually got to interview him briefly backstage, and I’ll be posting a pic of him tomorrow.