Farm Aid Celebrates 25 Years Championing American Farmers

"In 1985, we started out to save the family farmer. Now it looks like the family farmer is going to save us," Farm Aid president and country music legend Willie Nelson said in a released statement. "As our nation continues to endure an historic economic downturn, America's family farmers offer us much hope."

It’s been 25 years since organizers gathered in the mid-80s to help the economically oppressed farmers and their families face the challenges of foreclosures, bankruptcy, and eviction. With the loss of hundred of thousand of farms, the first Farm Aid concert was held in 1985 and the organization has championed the cause ever since.

The nonprofit, led by board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, is planning the 25th anniversary concert, Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America.

Farm Aid has worked to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. The organization has raised over $36 million since 1985 to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the dominant system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.

“Just as rock & roll is loud and proud, so is Farm Aid. Farm Aid's greatest accomplishment, I believe, is in the spirit. It's the fact that we represent the spirit of the good fight, to keep something good happening. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger,” Neil Young is quoted on the website.

For updates about Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America, including the concert location, date, musical lineup and promotional events, visit www.farmaid.org and follow Farm Aid at www.twitter.com/farmaid.