New York, NY —
Farm Aid held its annual festival on Randalls Island yesterday – the 22nd year of America’s longest running annual concert event. Thousands attended the show, headlined by Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. WNYC’s Anni Katz was there.
REPORTER: At first glance, it seemed like any other summer music festival.
WILLIE NELSON TRACK
The sun was out. Lines stretched from the port-o-potties to the parking lots. And at the entrance, VIP’s emerged from a white, stretch Range Rover limousine. But this concert was the first of its kind in New York City. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe read a proclamation from Mayor Bloomberg.
BENEPE: Whereas, by standing up for American family farmers and bringing family farm issues to a national agenda. Therefore I, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, proclaim September 9th to be Farm Aid 2007 Day. Here it is signed and sealed.
REPORTER: It’s hard to imagine a stranger setting for Farm Aid. Sure, the green fields of Randalls Island are a nice place to spend an afternoon, but it’s all against a backdrop of the most intensely urban place in the US. Look past the stage and there are the giant apartment buildings of East Harlem. Overhead is air traffic from LaGuardia Airport. But, zoom in on the city’s streets or eavesdrop on the conversations of its residents and you’ll find a common thread. Food. What New Yorker doesn’t love to brag about their food discoveries? Farm Aid’s founder and president, Willie Nelson.
NELSON: It’s obvious to me that people eat here, more than anywhere else in the world. So, why not come where people not only want us, but need us here?
REPORTER: Nelson and Farm Aid are on a food mission. A recent study by the Trust for America’s Health ranked New York among the top 20 states affected by childhood obesity. Diabetes diagnoses are on the rise. Everyday, New Yorkers actually go hungry. The state’s farmers are getting older, with an average age of 62. But, before this starts to sound like a crescendo of misfortune, it’s the reason Farm Aid descended on New York at such a critical moment. Alice Waters owns Bay Area restaurant Chez Panisse. In the food world, she’s as much of a rock star as Willie Nelson or Neil Young. She created the Edible Schoolyard program, which promotes the use of organic and local produce in public schools. Waters’ was one of the many advocates who spoke at a press conference before the ceremony.
WATERS: We have an unimaginable food crisis, environmental crisis, a cultural crisis. We need to spend the money upfront and what the effects could be have yet to be realized.
REPORTER: Now, Farm Aid’s message is simple: stay small. Forget the Chilean tomatoes and the Chinese apples. Support family farms by purchasing local and seasonal goods when possible. And in New York, this can be done at any of the city’s 70-plus greenmarkets, which were co-founded 30 years ago by Barry Benepe. His son, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, witnessed firsthand the deepening of a connection between grower and enthusiastic food consumer.
BENEPE: It created the sense of a village, of a village square. Where people get together and talk over tomatoes. We’re trying to be an environmentally conscious city.
REPORTER: But, at Farm Aid, the main topic of conversation wasn’t exactly locally grown, seasonal produce. And so, in between bites of not-so-sustainable funnel cake and kind-of-sort-of organic corndogs…
With a lineup also including Matisyahu, Guster, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp…it was all about the music.
NEIL YOUNG TRACK
For WNYC, I’m Anni Katz.