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Dear John,

The end of the year brings a time of reflection and hope for what the future will bring. 2020 has been very difficult for so many. We all likely share a hope that turning the calendar to 2021 will bring better days. 2020 has been hard on the people Farm Aid is here to support: our family farmers and ranchers. After years of price declines and trade disruptions, the pandemic has further disrupted supply chains and access to markets, while increasing their costs in order to protect workers and customers from COVID-19.

In addition to sharing a little about why they farm and the challenges they face, we asked family farmers to tell us about their vision for the future of agriculture during our virtual “Farm Aid 2020 On the Road” festival in September. What we heard from them reminds us how connected we are to the food we eat and where it comes from.

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Kirsten Simmons of Ecosystem Farm told us of her vision of “farms in every neighborhood, in every city. All of these spaces need to be producing food.” Tenisio Seanima of Nature’s Candy Farms optimistically said, “We’re going to see support begin to come back to who it truly belongs to – those family farmers that put in work, day in and day out, to make sure that we all have the products that we use and love.”

Family farmers are resilient. They have to be, to work from dawn to dusk in fields and barns and pastures, tending to crops and flocks and herds. They’re hopeful too. Just ask Jerry Volenec who told us, “No farmer left behind; that’s my vision of the future.”

We share that vision of a thriving food system that connects farmers and eaters as partners and celebrates all that family farmers provide for us: guaranteeing good food, strengthening our communities, and protecting our soil and water. But we need your support to answer the call to provide emergency relief to farmers in times of crisis [[link removed]] and when disasters [[link removed]] or global pandemics [[link removed]] strike. We rely on you so that we can work every day to provide long-term strategies that strengthen family farm agriculture [[link removed]] and promote fair farm policies [[link removed]] and empower all of us to support family farmers every time we eat.

Your support really matters. If you can, won’t you please consider a gift of $75 – or any amount [[link removed]] you’re able to give? Be part of keeping our essential family farmers on the land to strengthen and feed all our communities.

We’re grateful for family farmers and their resilience. And we’re grateful for your support of them in so many ways.

Happy Holidays,

All of us at Farm Aid

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