Washington, DC, September 17, 2008—Concertgoers attending this weekend’s Farm Aid 2008 event presented by Whole Foods Market and Horizon Organic, at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA, will be able to stop at the American Farmland Trust (AFT) booth in the Homegrown Village exhibition that runs from 1-6 p.m., Sept. 20, concurrently with music on the main stage.

To highlight its’ work, AFT’s booth helps draw the link between the local food movement and the immediate risks to farmland due to development pressure. Over 50% of the land in the United States is working farm and ranch land, and as such, farmland protection is important to the local foods movement as a whole, and, to contributing to cleaner water, open space, wildlife habitat and communities’ economic health.

Free “HOMEGROWN Passports” will be given to concertgoers, and those visiting all 20 stations in the exhibit area will be eligible to enter a drawing to win Farm Aid prizes. AFT hopes that concert goers will swing by the booth in HOMEGROWN Village to learn how to spread the No Farms, No Food ™ message. At the AFT booth, participants will be able to answer farmland trivia, earn stamps for their HOMEGROWN passports, and be entered in a separate AFT giveaway.

Farm Aid 2008 is the 22nd year of music provided by founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young and
John Mellencamp, who were joined in their venture by rocker Dave Matthews in 2001. Farm Aid is a non-profit that has raised more than $30 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture. This year Kenny Chesney, The Pretenders, moe., Arlo Guthrie, Jerry Lee Lewis, Steve Earle, Jakob Dylan and The Gold Mountain Rebels, Nation Beat, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Danielle Evin, Jamey Johnson, Jesse Lenat, Will Dailey, One Flew South, and
The Elms will all grace the stage with Nelson, Young, Mellencamp, and Matthews. More information on the September 20 event can be found at www.farmaid.org . The Comcast Center is located at 885 South Main Street, Mansfield, MA 02048.

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