Willie Nelson Calls for Changes in Farm Policy

Singer Willie Nelson pressed senators Thursday to change the nation’s agricultural policy so farmers can break even, warning lawmakers that farmers are “dropping like flies.”

Nelson and musician John Cougar Mellencamp were among witnesses at a Senate Agriculture subcommittee hearing into complaints that current farm policy is bankrupting rural America.

Nelson, who says people tell him after every concert how hard times are on the farm, stressed to lawmakers that changes are needed to allow farmers to break even.

“It’s been two years now, and I don’t see anything is getting any better. People in the farm business are . . . dropping like flies.”

Senators praised Nelson and Mellencamp for their activism, but asked them no questions about farm policy.

“Why are they (farmers) coming to us for advice? I know (chords) D, G and A,” Mellencamp said. “They have no one to turn to. . . . In reality, we voted for you guys to do what is morally right.”

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Mellencamp said at a news conference that he was disappointed by the lack of congressional action. “If these people worked for me, they’d work a short time,” he said.

It was the second time Nelson spoke to Agriculture Committee members. In 1985, along with singers Neil Young and John Conlee, he urged a more generous farm bill in an appearance coinciding with the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Ill.

Nelson is planning the third concert for Sept. 19 in Lincoln, Neb. The concerts have raised $8 million to help rural organizations.