Farm Aid to make grants to South Dakota, Colorado farmers
October 22, 2013 | 12:12 AM
Willie Nelson performs at the 2013 Farm Aid concert last month in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (Farm Aid)
Farm Aid has activated its Family Farm Disaster Fund to issue emergency grants to South Dakota and Colorado farmers who lost animals in the recent blizzard, but also warned that private aid cannot equal government aid, singer Willie Nelson, the group’s president, announced from the group’s Cambridge, Mass. headquarters on Monday.
“Our hearts go out to the Colorado farmers who saw their precious soil ripped away by rushing waters and the South Dakota ranchers who have had the terrible task of finding and burying their dead cattle,” said Nelson. “Farmers and ranchers are caretakers first and foremost, and though their economic losses are huge, these disasters take a serious emotional toll.”
Livestock disaster aid in the 2008 farm bill has expired, but the program would be revived retroactively in the new farm bill.
Farm Aid singer-songwriters and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds “to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food,” the group said in a news release. Farm Aid has raised more than $43 million since it began in 1985.
