While next week’s National Ploughing Championships are the showcase for Ireland’s family farms and the food they produce, the US equivalent takes place on Saturday next: Farm Aid.

Originally a one-off concert in the wake of Live Aid to highlight the plight of family farming during the 1980s, Farm Aid has become an annual celebration that showcases what we in Ireland would quickly identify with: relatively small, family run farms; sustainable food production; artisan foods; farmers’ markets; and a way of life that celebrates and cherishes the raising of animals and growing of crops, fruit, and vegetables.

Total raised

Farm Aid has raised over €50m, which is spent supporting local initiatives and co-operatives, and running and supporting awareness campaigns and supporting political activism to give a voice to the farming community in an increasingly urbanised society.

33rd edition

This will be the 33rd Farm Aid, with the star-studded list of performers headlined as always by the directors: Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews.

The concert is this year being held in Pennsylvania and is long since sold out, but you can watch on www.farmaid.org from 8pm Irish time on Saturday.

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