This year marked the 40th anniversary of the world-renowned Farm Aid festival, and the fourth year that SiX collaborated with Farm Aid to bring state legislators to several days of events leading up to the festival, which was held this year in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As part of SiX’s regional organizing strategy, we brought 23 legislators from the Midwest, including from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and host state Minnesota.
The experience gave legislators a unique opportunity to hear firsthand from farmers and rural advocates about how they are navigating today’s turbulent political and social climate, providing participants with insights to help shape more effective state policy.
Getting Grounded: Welcome Reception and Farm Tours
The SiX CROP Farm Aid convening began on the Wednesday evening before the Farm Aid concert. State legislators were welcomed to St. Paul over local brews and wood-fired pizza made with Kernza®, a new perennial wheat variety that sequesters carbon and eliminates the need for repeated tillage.
The next morning, participants hopped on a bus with several local advocates for a day in rural Minnesota. The first stop was Farmland Cooperative, an immigrant-run farm that grew out of the Kilimo Minnesota farm cooperative network. Legislators heard about challenges of land and market access and took home a variety of vegetables they harvested themselves.
The group next headed to Flying J Farm, a sixth-generation beef and small grain farm in Cannon Falls, run by Shea-Lynn Ramthun and her family. Shea-Lynn shared her experience switching from conventional row cropping to small grains, cover crops, and oat production as a small farmer and the challenges and opportunities of making the change. Lunch on the farm was prepared by a local restaurant and featured hamburgers made from Shea-Lynn’s beef. Over lunch, a state policy-focused panel hosted by Land Stewardship Project featured Martin Larsen and Landon Plagge of the “Oat Mafia”—a network of over 60 farmers in Minnesota and Iowa growing and developing processing and markets for food-grade oats. The panelists were informative and frank, discussing needs, challenges and healthy soil practices, and sharing how state policy gaps contribute to the precarious economic conditions they face as independent farmers.
Hearing directly from farmers about their challenges and opportunities is a highlight of the SiX Farm Aid experience and this farm tour showed legislators that now more than ever, independent farmers and rural communities need state policymaker leadership on the issues that impact them and their ability to grow sustainable, healthy, and accessible food for their communities.
The SiX CROP Circle crew at Flying J Farms
Farmer Forum and Farm Aid Eve: A Closer Look at the Issues
The day before the festival, Farm Aid held its annual Farmer Forum, a space where farmers, advocates, and—thanks to SiX—state legislators gathered to talk about pressing issues in the farm and food system. This year, as a key partner of Farm Aid, SiX hosted a panel featuring Iowa State Representative Megan Srinivas, Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman, Illinois State Representative Sonya Harper, and Illinois Stewardship Alliance Executive Director Liz Stelk to talk about their work engaging with rural communities, Black farmers, and building successful inside/outside strategy for policymaking.
The two legislator/advocate pairs have worked together in strategic partnership and they shared their stories of collaborative governance. In Iowa, Rep. Srinivas and Iowa Farmers Union hosted a series of cancer listening sessions in rural communities, which ended up killing a pesticide immunity bill (a so-called “Bayer bill”) that would have shielded pesticide companies from legal liability for harms caused by their products. In Illinois, Representative Sonya Harper has championed Black farmers annually during the Illinois Black Farmers and Growers Lobby Day at the state capitol, and has worked closely with Illinois Stewardship on strategy to advance a wide range of sustainable agriculture and food system bills.
Tennessee Representative Justin Jones and South Dakota Representative Kadyn Wittman pose for a photo outside of Farm Aid Eve.
Farm Aid Festival: Music with a Purpose
For the final day, legislators gathered with members and farmers of the National Family Farm Coalition, a close SiX partner, to attend the Farm Aid festival. Farm Aid’s 40-year fight for independent family farms and vibrant rural economies was celebrated with a lively, multigenerational star-studded concert; the Homegrown Village, featuring booths from advocates working on vital issues impacting rural America; and deep-dive discussions with farmers, artists, and even a state legislator at the Farm Yard Stage.
The festival day began with a press conference highlighting the issues at stake: the disappearance of family farms since the 1980s farm crisis and the rise of corporate power, the agribusiness lobby, and the corporate influence in our food and agriculture policies that have facilitated this crisis. Farm Aid uses the festival to raise awareness and funds to provide direct support to farmers, in the form of grants, a crisis hotline, resources, and community.
The festival lineup included founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp; a surprise performance by Bob Dylan; singer-songwriter and truthteller Jesse Welles; Sierra Ferrell and Lukas Nelson, who gave a virtuosic vocal performance; Margo Price; Minnesota legends Trampled by Turtles, and many others.
Amid the great music, the festival maintained its focus on pressing issues faced by farmers and rural communities. As MN Rep. Kristi Pursell reflected, “I was impressed with the clarity of purpose of the event. From the sourcing of the food, to the booths in the Homegrown Village, to the powerful testimonials given from the stage by farmers and musicians alike during the press conference as well as during their musical performances. I loved being part of an event so full of love and hope in a day and age when division and derision rule the dominant narrative.” You can hear Rep. Pursell talk about the synergy between issues and music in The Weekly List podcast, which also features some of the performances from the festival.
Clockwise from top left: CROP Members MN Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Mn Rep. Emma Greenman, WI Senator Sarah Keyeski, WI Rep. Karen DeSanto, WI Rep. Vinnie Miresse, Farm Aid Board Member Margo Price, WI Rep. Maureen McCarville, IL Rep. Sonya Harper, MN Rep. Leigh Finke, MI Rep. Emily Dievendorf, MN Rep. Bianca Virnig, and SD Rep. Kadyn Wittman pose for a photo on the day of the Farm Aid festival.
The Big Picture: Carrying Farm Aid Beyond the Festival
The weekend left legislators buzzing with ideas about how to advance policy and bring light to dark times. Participants inspired one another and learned about new practices and policy approaches like the use of oats to address nitrate leaching in soil, the use of incentives to reduce overapplication of chemical inputs, and the value of rural listening sessions to effect policy change.
Many of these conversations found a common theme: the influence of corporations and their proxies is at the heart of myriad crises, from the climate crisis to the apparent crumbling of our democracy. Attending Farm Aid provides state leaders a chance to see the interconnectedness of these issues.
Through farmers’ first-hand stories and the music that gives voice to working people’s struggles, the Farm Aid experience centers those too often left out of the agricultural policy conversation. For legislators in attendance, it was both grounding and galvanizing—a reminder that they have a critical role to play in advancing policies that support independent farmers, strengthen rural communities, and build a more just and sustainable food system for all.
Wisconsin Representative Karen DeSanto spoke for many participants, saying, “To say I was moved and changed by this experience is an understatement. Farm Aid, and all that it stands for, has made an impact on me and the way I think and lead. Thank you, SiX! I am forever changed, and I am grateful.”
This year’s cohort left ready to build upon what they learned and the connections they made, and SiX’s regional organizing strategy in the Midwest will take that energy and provide a space for legislators to build a future that feeds and uplifts our rural communities.