
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990                   TAG: 9004080162
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Medium

STARS TURN OUT TO HELP FARMERS

Financially strapped Farm Aid returned Saturday with its first concert in 2 1/2 years, as performers sounded a message of concern not only for the family farmer but also for the land they till.

Farm Aid President Willie Nelson topped the list of performers who said they were forging a coalition with family farmers, environmentalists and consumers to work toward reducing the amount of chemicals used in food production.

Inside the Hoosier Dome arena, early arrivals among the sellout crowd of 45,000 settled in with blankets and pillows for the marathon 12-hour event. Many of the more popular performers, including Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley, were not scheduled to perform until the final two hours.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said the family farm crisis is expanding. He criticized reports from Secretary of Agriculture Clayton Yeutter citing farm income at record levels, a point some Farm Aid critics have raised as evidence this concert was unnecessary.

"What [Yeutter] doesn't say is that when the numbers are adjusted for inflation, farm income in the last decade was at its lowest since 1910," he said.

Singer Henry Lee Summer, from Brazil, Ind., used the stage to speak out against out-of-state trash being dumped in Indiana.

Concertgoers said they were there not only to enjoy the music but also to support the family farmer, the cause that inspired the formation of Farm Aid five years ago. The organization, through its first three shows in 1985-87, raised $12 million and has distributed some $9 million to churches and service agencies, hot lines and farm organizations.

Carolyn Mugar, executive director of Farm Aid, said midway through the show that it had generated about $1 million in revenues and donations. She and Nelson have left open the possibility of more concerts as the need for money arises.

Environmental activists, including Chris Desser, executive director of Earth Day 1990, and John O'Connor, executive director of the National Toxics Campaign, also spoke out against "brute chemical farming."

The lineup also included Dwight Yoakum, K.T. Oslin, Lou Reed, Guns n' Roses, Richard Marx, Jackson Browne, John Denver and a Soviet rock band, Gorky Park.

by CNB