Holiday Bonus Episode: Willie Nelson and Family

In this special episode of Against the Grain, we dig into our recently digitized archives to highlight Farm Aid's awe-inspiring founder and president, Willie Nelson. You may remember that we discussed how the first Farm Aid concert came together in the first episode of the podcast, but in this episode, we highlight the range of work Willie has done for the family farm movement outside of the annual festival. Year-in and year-out, for forty years, Willie has shown up to work shoulder-to-shoulder with farmers and ranchers whenever they've needed him. For this episode, we unearthed some archival audio of Willie joining a haylift in 1996, helping to distribute hay shipped by farmers in South Carolina to ranchers in Texas who, faced with a prolonged drought, couldn't grow enough of their own hay for their cattle. Listen in as Willie greets the trucks, donated and driven by Teamsters Union drivers, and then goes out to Travis county ranches to distribute the hay. Willie may be in his 90s now, but he continues to stand alongside farmers fighting for a more just food and farm system.