Farm Aid

Helping farmers thrive - in 2022, farmers continued to deal with impacts of the pandemic and also faced the traditional challenges including competing in an ever-consolidating market that favors corporations; weather, including extreme weather and natural disasters exacerbated by climate change; rising input costs; market changes and the difficulty of earning a fair price. The strain in the Farm economy is no accident; it is the result of policies designed to enrich corporations at the expense of farmers, ranchers and eaters. In response, Farm Aid continued to expand our direct farmer response and increased our advocacy of solutions to Farm policy that needs a massive shift in directionone that is equitable to all farmers and delivers fair prices and competitive markets that allow them to make a living.through the 1-800-farm-aid hotline and online request for assistance, Farm Aid's hotline operators listen to farmers and refer them to an extensive network of Farm and rural support organizations across the country. Referrals provide immediate support to Farm families in crisis and farmers seeking to transition to more sustainable farming practices, as well as for future farmers interested in beginning their farms. In 2022, Farm Aid received 829 contacts to the hotline and online request for assistance form, an increase of 40% from the previous year. By region, Farm Aid received 324 cases from the south; 199 from the midwest; 164 from the west; and 119 from the northeast.in partnership with the migrant clinicians network (mcn), Farm Aid hired a new spanish hotline operator, elizabeth gonzalez-ibarra, in october. This capacity on the Farm Aid hotline is essential to meet the needs of spanish-speaking farmers and farmworkers. Farm Aid is engaged in several marketing and outreach strategies to increase knowledge and create partnerships with spanish/farmworker organizations.farm Aid hotline operators completed many trainings throughout 2022 to strengthen their skills to respond to farmers including legal workshops, Farm lending law, usda programs, appeals, discrimination and equitable relief, in addition to implicit bias training.emergency grants totaling more than $42,500 were made in 2022 to Farm families to cover essential household expenses. These $500 grants are recommended on a case-by-case basis by Farm Aid hotline managers who also connect farmers with helpful services, resources and opportunities specific to their individual needs.farm Aid's farmer resource network offers an interactive website and database of more than 1,500 resources that provide guidance for new farmers, direct assistance to farmers in crisis, and support for farmers who wish to transition to more sustainable production methods and markets. Through the frn, Farm Aid makes connections between individuals, Farm service organizations, and businesses to address challenges and create opportunities for farmers. Farm Aid points farmers and advocates to our most trusted resources, new offerings and timely opportunities via our curated resource guides.thanks to the increased capacity of our hotline team, we better curate and increase the resources in the frn; in 2022, the number of resources in the network was increased by 50%. The work to make the frn more user-friendly and accessible is ongoing; in 2022 we improved the ways that organizations can share resources with Farm Aid and streamlined the process of adding new resources. We also focused on building out media resources (pdfs, webinars, etc. ), and resources in spanish. Farm Aid awarded $399,000 in end of year grants to organizations that help farmers secure theresources they need to begin farming, access new markets, grow sustainably and build resilience in the face of crisis and stress.

Promoting food from family farms - the heart of Farm Aid's work to promote food from family farms is our annual Farm Aid festival. Farm Aid 2022 was held at coastal credit union music park at walnut creek in raleigh, north carolina, on september24. A crowd of 18,350 enjoyed performances by Farm Aid board members willie nelson, john mellencamp, dave matthews with tim reynolds, and margo price. Additional artists included chris stapleton, sheryl crow, allison russell, lukas nelson & promise of the real, charley crockett, brittany spencer, particle kid, the wisdom indian dancers and the horse hill singers. All of the artists generously donated their time and travel expenses.on september 24 at Farm Aid 2022: in Farm Aid's homegrown village, 33 Farm and food groups engaged festivalgoers in handson, interactive activities about family farmers, soil, water and food production. At the mini farm,festivalgoers enjoyed the company of heritage breed Farm animals. In the homegrown skills tent, festivalgoers took part in 6 workshops about mushroom and plant foraging, making natural dyes, lacto-fermentation and more. On the farmyard stage, farmers, activists and artists came together in conversation about the state of american agriculture, the challenges and opportunities of black, indigenous and people of color (bipoc) farmers, and agriculture's connection to climate change-both as a cause of climate change (industrial agriculture) and a remedy for climate change.engaging people in a hands-on way in the homegrown village and on the farmyard stage fosters deep awareness of key food and Farm issues. Farm Aid partnered with legends hospitality to serve homegrown concessions: family farm-sourced food grown and raised with ecological standards and a fair price paid to farmers. Homegrown concessions builds a strong relationship with farmers, food companies, ethnically diverse food vendors and sponsors. A total of 60 menu items featured family Farm food, including many vegetable, fruit, meat and seafood ingredients from north carolina and the southeast. Many food companies and sponsors donated food for homegrown catering backstage and in vip areas. Chefs volunteered to serve their specialties for guests. The homegrown youthmarket, a Farm fresh stand operated by young people from national grange and ffa, sold local apples, peaches and muscadine grapes to festivalgoers. 9,842 pounds of food and serviceware waste was collected to build soil for future crops. Farm Aid had a total of 360 volunteers, many of whom helped festivalgoers differentiate between landfill-bound trash, recyclables and compostables. Farm Aid sold reusable water bottles to reduce waste and aluminum water bottles were sold at concessions stands as well, with free water for refills. Festival t-shirts, made with certified organic cotton, were sold. Farm Aid partnered with inter-faith food shuttle for the donation of 7,601 pounds of grocery items and useable food remaining after the event. Corporate sponsors included dish network, patagonia workwear, coastal credit union foundation, moink, spindrift, frontier co-op, institute for emerging issues and deep river brewing company. Farm Aid 2022 generated several major donations, including a $1 million donation made on stage by jim irsay on behalf of the indianapolis colts foundation Inc. Farm Aid 2022 emphasized the diversity of farmers and ranchers in the southeast and across the nation, while shining a light on the ways in which farmers can help solve our climate crisis. Over the summer, Farm Aid staff visited farmers on farms across north and south carolina and Georgia to film video spots that bring farmer voices to the Farm Aid stage, tv and web broadcasts, our website and social media. For the first time, we featured the stories of fishermen, drawing connections between their challenges and those of land farmers, particularly those challenges related to climate change. Featured farmers and fishers joined Farm Aid artists for the annual press event that kicks off each festival, sharing their stories and the ways in which they act as climate stewards on their farms and boats. Also on the press event stage, Farm Aid announced a major farmer mobilization being planned by the national sustainable agriculture campaign (nsac), Farm Aid and many other nsac members, for march 2023. The artists on stage and audience members rose to their feet in support. Farm Aid 2022 received significant local and regional media coverage, as well as national attention, including from the raleigh news & observer, rolling stone and billboard. Coverage resulted in 917 print, online and broadcast media hits and 324 broadcast hits, resulting in nearly 1 million media impressions from announcement day through festival-week. Feature stories promoted the entertainment value of the festival, as well as the diversity of farmers and importance of family Farm agriculture for all of us.farm Aid 2022 was broadcast live on circle tv, a music-centric network, for the second time, with Farm Aid's farmer stories and a call-to-action for donations and merchandise sales. Sirius xm satellite radio broadcast the entire concert live, with artists, family farmers and advocates interviewed between music sets. The festival was webcast live on www.farmaid.org and Farm Aid's youtube channel, with 53,556 views and a total watch time of 39,000 hours. The festival was additionally streamed on dish network and on circle's social media accounts.the Farm Aid 2022 app for iphone and android provided festival details including the music lineup, stories about featured farmers, information about exhibits in the homegrown village and the organizations presenting them, and the menu for homegrown concessions. The Farm Aid 2022 app was downloaded by 8,671 people who logged 62,047 sessions with an average session time of more than 6 minutes.farm Aid's social media presence allowed people to share how they support family farmers and Farm Aid, reaching more than 18.4 million users on twitter, resulting in 42 million impressions, and nearly 1 million more people on facebook and instagram, during the period between announcement and festival day.

Taking action to change the system - Farm Aid works with local, regional and national organizations to promote fair Farm policies and grassroots organizing efforts. Farm Aid granted $515,000 to family Farm organizations working to ensure competitive markets for family farmers, address antitrust and contract violations, fight factory farms, strengthen the grassroots around a unified vision for our Farm and food system and amplify an effective farmer voice to reform the food system. On the thursday before the annual Farm Aid festival, Farm Aid hosted a farmer forum, "equity, climate and agriculture: the way forward," with more than 150 participants taking part. The forum was an opportunity to engage in a productive and thoughtful dialogue between farmers, advocates, activists and policymakers. Farmers and ranchers from across the country shared their stories, challenges and opportunities. They asked critical questions and raised crucial points about the ways our food system is failing to best honor farmers, ranchers, eaters and our climate, soil and water. They proposed solutions for how to tackle some of the most pressing and complex issues our country faces. Farm Aid's credit working group, made up of people directly serving farmers through one-on-one advocacy in addition to experts in Farm credit and agricultural law, continued to offer and press for reforms that could be made administratively at usda. The working group meets weekly and has had numerous meetings with top usda officials to push for changes that make usda programs and credit more accessible to farmers, especially underserved farmers, with better outcomes for family farmers. Throughout the year, Farm Aid lent our voice and other support to efforts to change our Farm and food system, including: partnering with the intertribal agriculture council to support a new rule to prevent unfair lending practices inagriculture that persist and continue to create deep inequity in land ownership and access, slash diversityin agriculture and impoverish rural communities; advocating for transparency in poultry grower contracting and protection of whistleblowers, who play a crucialrole in exposing the ways in which our Farm and food system harms farmers, workers and eaters; speaking out against federal funding for confined animal feeding operations (cafos) and manure digestersthat create factory Farm gas; calling on president biden to demand a transformative Farm bill that centers racial justice, ends huger andincreasing access to healthy food, meets the climate crisis head on and ensures the safety of food and farmworkers, farmers and consumers, and our entire food system; supporting the white house conference on food, nutrition, hunger and health to chart policies that willsupport a universally sustainable, healthful and equitable food system; calling for support of the Farm and stress assistance network, a federal program that has broughtawareness and resources to the challenge of farmer stress and rural mental health; calling for increased conservation and climate friendly agriculture funding as well as increased funding toexpand local livestock processing; and fighting for regulations to ensure a fair marketplace for america's family farmers and ranchers.farm Aid continues to serve as a leader and contributing member of various collaborative efforts to changeour Farm and food system and advance the power and participation of farmers in these efforts. These have included efforts to address economic and social injustices across animal agriculture; to elevate on-the-ground solutions to climate change; to build the supply of non-gmo food ingredients and animal feed in the u.s.; and to promote regenerative agriculture.farm Aid also continues its leadership in the philanthropic community to bring funders' attention to the varied challenges faced by family farmers and to encourage collaboration and collective problem solving.

Growing the good food movement (ggfm)- in 2022, Farm Aid and our partners continued to implement strategies that bolster the good food movementthe growing number of eaters demanding family farm-identified, local, organic or humanely raised food. Farm Aid awarded grants in the amount of $100,000 to organizations that strengthen infrastructure for local and regional food systems and raise awareness of their value. These grants support work to create new markets for farmers and enhance access to good food for everyone, regardless of race, color, national origin or zip code.