Against the Grain: The Farm Aid Podcast

Take a listen to a panel discussion recorded live on the FarmYard Stage at Farm Aid 2026 in Virginia Beach, VA. Our guests include Virginia waterman Kevin Godsey, Missouri farmer and Executive Director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Rhonda Perry, and Arkansan and third time Farm Aid artist, Jesse Welles. With these expert guests, we discuss land use and the pressures facing farmers and fisherpeople in the face of overwhelming corporate power. This is especially relevant in Virginia, home to the greatest concentration of newly-built data centers that are having adverse effects on farming and fishing communities.

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In this episode, we take you backstage as we get ready for Farm Aid 2026 in Virginia Beach, VA. You’ll meet four key people who make the Farm Aid festival happen every year, learn how they got involved, what they do to get ready for the festival every year and what they love about it (hint: it has something to do with the “Farm Aid vibe.”)

Join us for Farm Aid 2026 on Saturday, September 26th, at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach! This all-day celebration of music and farmers features a unique lineup of artists and genres, along with delicious, family farm foods in our HOMEGROWN Concessions. Join us to celebrate and stand with family farmers!

Go to www.farmaid.org/podcast for details

Come with us to Luck Reunion in Texas to hear a panel conversation we recorded in front of a live audience. The panel brought together Jazz Mills of Free Lunch Austin, Kaye Askins of the Texas Hospitality Collective and Eamonn McLain of the Minnesota-based band, Trampled by Turtles. Each panelist speaks to ways that their communities responded to neighbors in need. Listen in and be inspired by these everyday heroes!

Farm Aid is coming to Virginia Beach on Saturday, September 26th, at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheaterto to rock for family farmers! farmaid.org/tickets

Featuring Willie Nelson & Family, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, Turnpike Troubadours, Lukas Nelson, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs, Jesse Welles, Sierra Ferrell, Mon Rovîa, I’m With Her, Amythyst Kiah, Lily Meola and Chris Pierce! 

Celebrating family farmers and HOMEGROWN food! farmaid.org/tickets

In Part 2 of this special two-part episode of "Against the Grain," we take you back to Chillicothe, Missouri to mark the 40th anniversary of the longest sustained farmer protest in American history.  Starting in March of 1986, farmers and movement allies blockaded the Farmers Home Administration office in Chillicothe for 145 days. Organized in large part by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, the blockade brought together a multiracial working class coalition of civil rights, labor, and farm activists. Carolyn Mugar, Farm Aid's first executive director, got involved from the start and recruited Farm Aid founder John Mellencamp to join the blockade.  Other national figures like the Rev. Jesse Jackson also came to Chillicothe. This episode includes interviews with John Mellencamp, MRCC organizers Roger Allison and Rhonda Perry, as well as Farm Aid's Carolyn Mugar. It also features archival sound from Jesse Jackson's appearance and John Mellencamp's performance at the blockade before 10,000 people in the FmHA parking lot, where he used a flatbed truck for a stage. As we stare down another farm crisis, the story of Chillicothe reminds us that we've been here before, fought back - and won!

In Part I of this special two-part episode of "Against the Grain," we take you back to Chillicothe, Missouri to mark the 40th anniversary of the longest sustained farmer protest in American history.  Starting in March of 1986, farmers and movement allies blockaded the Farmers Home Administration office in Chillicothe for 145 days. Organized in large part by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, the blockade brought together a multiracial working class coalition of civil rights, labor, and farm activists. Carolyn Mugar, Farm Aid's first executive director, got involved from the start and recruited Farm Aid founder John Mellencamp to join the blockade.  Other national figures like the Rev. Jesse Jackson also came to Chillicothe. This episode includes interviews with John Mellencamp, MRCC organizers Roger Allison and Rhonda Perry, as well as Farm Aid's Carolyn Mugar. It also features archival sound from Jesse Jackson's appearance and John Mellencamp's performance at the blockade before 10,000 people in the FmHA parking lot, where he used a flatbed truck for a stage. As we stare down another farm crisis, the story of Chillicothe reminds us that we've been here before, fought back - and won!

In this episode, we take you back to Farm Aid 40, where we recorded a panel discussion on the FarmYard Stage. Our guests include farmer Amanda Koehler, activist Lisa Bellanger and Farm Aid artist Madeline Edwards. Although we could not have anticipated the shocking events that occurred in the Twin Cities just a few months after this panel, the administration's earlier disruptions to the farm and food system informed our discussion. Tune in to hear about the challenges faced by new farmers and emerging artists—and the hopes that keep them moving forward.

Live from Farm Aid 40: Policymakers talk about the current farm crisis

In this episode, we take you back to Farm Aid 40 in Minneapolis, where we spoke to some of the state's leading policymakers about issues facing farmers in the current crisis and about how to get a Farm Bill passed. Our colleague, Hannah Tremblay, Farm Aid's Policy and Advocacy Manager, helps frame our conversation by discussing the state of the Farm Bill and what's happening in farm country right now.  We then talk to Congresswoman Angie Craig, Senator Amy Klobuchar and Governor Tim Walz, who shouts out Farm Aid founder John Mellencamp!

In this final episode of Against the Grain's Artists & Activism series, we take you back to Luck Reunion where we recorded a panel conversation in front of a live audience. This panel had four artists who lived through various climate disasters and have been working to sustain their communities in the aftermath. Listen in as we talk to Farm Aid board artist Margo Price, JJ Tourville, Matthew Logan Vasquez and Tommy Newport, followed by a brilliant question and answer session with the audience.

Join us for Farm Aid’s annual festival on Saturday, September 20th, at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota! 

This all-day celebration of music and farmers features a unique lineup of artists and genres, along with delicious, family farm foods in our HOMEGROWN Concessions. 

Celebrate Farm Aid’s 40 years of standing with family farmers in person or grab a Watch Party Kit for that festival feel at home!

Go to www.farmaid.org/podcast  for details

In this penultimate episode of Against the Grain's series on Artists and Activism, we get personal - as in "the personal is political."  We talk to Waylon Payne, Allison Russell and Hunter Park (who performs as She Returns from War) about how their personal lives (and, really, all of our personal lives) are political and politicized, even if we're not the ones framing them that way. For Waylon, Allison and Hunter, "the personal is political" has led each to seek their own "chosen family" and chosen community, a place where they are loved and supported, included and treated with respect. We're joined by Steve Duncombe, from the Center for Artistic Activism, for context on how artists telling their true experiences can be a powerful vehicle for political expression and engagement.

Farm Aid 40 will reunite family farmers and musician activists in Minneapolis on September 20th, with performances by Farm Aid board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds), Margo Price, Kenny Chesney, Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson, Trampled by Turtles, Wynonna Judd, Steve Earle, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles, Madeline Edwards, and Wisdom Indian Dancers.  

Join us in Minneapolis to celebrate 40 years of Farm Aid!

For tickets and details ---> www.farmaid.org/podcast

In this episode of Against the Grain’s series on artists & activism, we talk to Lukas Nelson, Micah Nelson and Allison Russell about their experiences with climate change at home and on the road, and what artists — and all of us — can do about it.

For 40 years, Farm Aid has stood with family farmers against corporate power, bad policies and climate disasters. As Farm Aid Founder and President Willie Nelson says: “Family farmers aren’t backing down, and neither are we.”

Join us for Farm Aid’s annual festival on Saturday, September 20th , at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota! This all-day celebration of music and farmers features a unique lineup of artists and genres, along with delicious, family farm foods in our HOMEGROWN Concessions. Join us to celebrate Farm Aid’s 40 years of standing with family farmers! 

Festival and ticket info at: www.farmaid.org/podcast