Farm Aid First to Offer Family-Farm Food at Major Music Event

Festival reducing, reusing, recycling waste to help environment.

Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival will be the first major music event to serve local, organic and family-farm foods at its concessions and to artists, crews and VIPs backstage. Every concessions stand at Farm Aid's September 9 benefit concert at Randall's Island in New York City will meet these criteria. Farm Aid hopes its unprecedented food procurement will demonstrate how family-farm foods can be integrated into everyday life.

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Neil Young concert on November 9, 1976, in Austin, Texas.
Young is appearing at this year's Farm Aid concert at
Randall's Island in NYC.

Menu items with local, organic and family-farm ingredients include traditional festival snacks like pizza, burritos, hamburgers, corn dogs, sandwiches, pitas, ice cream and baked goods, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. More than 80 percent of all ingredients found in these menu items are local, organic and/or sourced from family farms.

"Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival is New York City's largest family farm food restaurant, and it's open for only one day!" said Carolyn Mugar executive director of Farm Aid. "To bring this much local, organic and family- farm food into a major concert event is an amazing accomplishment that required creativity and collaboration." Sonya Dagovitz Kugler of Natural Needs acted as the food forager for Farm Aid to seek out the farms and brands that met the organization's food criteria.

At Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival, concertgoers will also be able to learn about the important role family farmers serve in helping us gain access to fresh, healthful foods. Farm Aid's Homegrown Village will offer interactive experiences with family farmers and sustainable family-farm practices that protect the soil, water and environment.

Farm Aid will also implement a recycling and composting program at the event. The Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) and its office of Recycling, Outreach and Education has assembled a team of 400 volunteers that will work to ensure that paper, glass, plastic, and aluminum are recycled and Farm Aid will also have compost bins for food waste and compostable food utensils.

Sprint Recycling of New York will reclaim recyclables and transport the compostable waste collected at the festival to McEnroe Organic Farm in Millerton, New York. At McEnroe Organic Farm, what was once waste, will be turned into valuable compost that will sustain future crops. Sprint Recycling and Silk Soymilk are underwriting the composting and recycling effort. Concertgoers will learn about this process and home composting in the Homegrown Village.

Concessions at Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival are managed by Dave Smalley and Chris Crowell of Spectrum Concessions and will include American Flatbread, Ahli Babas Kabob Shop, Chipotle, Culinary Corps, Gorilla Coffee, Greenmarket, Jalapeno Corndog, Loopy's Espresso and Crepe Cart, Miss Fritz, Patchwork Family Farms, Sambazon, Sparky's All American Food, Spectrum Concessions, Stone Hearth Pizza, Strawberry Fields, Sysco Food Service and T's Concessions.

Catering backstage for artists, crews, and VIPs is presented by Jeff Miller and Jeff Bratz of Whose Catering.

The stellar lineup at Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival features Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Gregg Allman, The Allman Brothers Band, Counting Crows, Matisyahu, Guster, The Derek Trucks Band, Warren Haynes, Supersuckers, The Ditty Bops, Montgomery Gentry, Danielle Evin, Jesse Lenat, Jimmy Sturr, Pauline Reese, Billy Joe Shaver, Paula Nelson and 40 Points.

Tickets for Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/, or by calling (212) 307-7171, (631) 888-9000 or (203) 624-0033. Ticket prices are $52 for general admission, $102 for reserved seats and $302 for VIP reserved seats. The VIP package includes catering in an exclusive area and other amenities.

Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival is sponsored by Silk Soymilk, Horizon Organic, Fields Family Foundation, Chipotle, Whole Foods Market, Chevy, Organic Trade Association, Delicious Living, Clif Bar, Organic Valley Family of Farms, Niman Ranch and Annie's Homegrown.

Farm Aid's mission is to build a vibrant family-farm centered system of agriculture in America. Farm Aid artists and board members Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews host an annual concert to raise funds to support Farm Aid's work with family farmers and to inspire people to choose family-farmed food. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised more than $30 million to support programs that help farmers thrive, expand the reach of the Good Food Movement, take action to change the current system of industrial agriculture and promote food from family farms.

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