We just got back from Luck Reunion, a music festival held on Farm Aid President, Willie Nelson’s ranch every March. There, we talked to farmers, artists and chefs. Specifically, we spoke to superstar Chef @rickbayless. On a new bonus episode, Chef Bayless recounts his time living in Mexico. There he noticed that if people had a strong local agricultural economy, the food in the restaurants and homes just tasted better. When he moved to Chicago he decided to replicate this model.
In this very short, appetizer episode, Rick talks about how he worked with other chefs and local farmers to organize the first farmers markets in Chicago. More than that, over the last 37 years, his Frontera Farmer Foundation has invested $3.5 million in the city’s local agricultural economy, primarily through small grants to farmers seeking to expand production.
Learn more at: www.farmaid.org/podcast
Against the Grain is the Farm Aid podcast, designed to bring the magic of Farm Aid’s annual festival to listeners year-round. Hear from farmers and artists, advocates and food experts, activists and policymakers - all of whom are working towards building a more just and equitable farm and food system.
We’ll take you all over the country, from Farm Aid’s backstage and HOMEGROWN Village, to rural and urban farms and farmers’ markets. There, you’ll meet the extraordinary members of the Farm Aid universe, fighting the industrial agriculture giants, holding the government accountable, and shifting the culture towards a food and farm model that is better for farmers, our soil, water and climate and for all of us.
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Farm Aid’s mission is to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price host an annual festival to raise funds to support Farm Aid’s work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family farm food. For more than 35 years, Farm Aid, with the support of the artists who contribute their performances each year, has raised more than $78 million 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.