Every year, come concert time, family farmers and farm group advocates join together before the show to talk shop, compare notes and vision for the future. This year, with the help of Rhonda Perry and Tim Gibbons of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, a closed farmer meeting will be taking place Saturday, October 3rd, at the First Presbyterian Church in St Louis. Farmers from as far as Texas and New York will gather with Missouri farmers to organize around competition and concentration issues in agriculture and discuss options for ensuring accessible and adequate credit.
Following the meeting will be a farmer greeting – in which the public is invited to join the group for a panel presentation on the challenges and opportunities facing family farm agriculture. Speakers include Missouri Senator Wes Shoemyer, Wisconsin dairy farmer Joel Greeno, Montana cattle rancher Gilles Stockton, and National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition executive director, Aimee Witteman, among many others. If you are in St. Louis for the show, please stop by the First Presbyterian Church on Delmar Blvd at 5:00 pm to learn about how you can use your voice to push for a vibrant family farm food system that builds thriving rural economies, strong communities, a healthy environment and supports sustainably raised food from family farms.
Helping to bring family farmers and the public together is just one more way Farm Aid works to advance the good food movement and see that farmers thrive.
