Survey shows many Americans think grocery stores and restaurants -- but not farmers -- are overcharging them

In November 2023, The Rural Blog excerpted this question: "Is Chris Stapleton the one thing that America can agree on?" A new review of what people think of their food supply shows another topic most Americans agree on: food and staples are too expensive, and farmers aren't the primary problem.

University of Illinois and Purdue University agricultural experts examined the February Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey results to "explore U.S. consumers' perceptions of firm size and pricing strategies of four important players in the food system — farmers, food manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants," Farmdoc Daily reports. The survey aims to include broader public opinions on food, from supplies to how food tastes.

As part of the survey, participants were asked  “Do you think any of the following groups in the food system are too big (i.e., have too much control or share of the market)?"

Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey, February 2024

"The majority of consumers are concerned about the size of food manufacturers and grocery stores, with 67.8% and 51.6% indicating that these types of players in the food system are too big," Farmdoc reports.

Survey researchers also reviewed whether participants who felt food systems were too big fell along party lines. They did not. They noted, "We find that the majority of consumers across political parties thought food manufacturers and grocery stores were ‘too big’—highlighting that concerns about firm size have become a priority across party lines."

Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey, February 2024

Consumer participants were asked which, if any, food provider was overcharging the public. Researchers wrote, "We find that over 70% of consumers think that restaurants, grocery stores, and food manufacturers are overcharging them. Far fewer (21.9%) thought that farmers were overcharging consumers."

Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey, February 2024

For more details on survey questions and answers, Farmdoc Daily provides a readable pdf here.

Quick hits: Chris Stapleton; the first hydrogen-powered ferry; Stephen King's library; was Paul Bunyan a real man?

Chris Stapleton is one of the most famous men in country
music and beyond. (Photo by Stacy Kranitz, GQ)

The holidays mean getting together with relatives, but those gatherings can lead to heated discussions. As an antidote to arguing with Uncle Alan over religion, there is one topic everyone might be able to enjoy: Chris Stapleton and all his general awesomeness. Brett Martin of Gentlemen's Quarterly went road-tripping with the musical icon and asks, "Is Chris Stapleton the One Thing That America Can Agree On?"

Farm accidents happen, from tractor mishaps to pumpkin harvesting cuts. Each year, nonfatal injuries occur to about 33% of the farming population in the United States. One way to prevent accidents from becoming fatal is to be trained on how to slow blood loss until help can arrive. "Stop the Bleed is a nationally recognized, 90-minute certification program providing participants with hands-on opportunities to recognize life-threatening bleeding and intervene effectively by properly using a tourniquet in the event of blood loss caused by an injury," reports Jenny Schlect of AgWeek. Many 4-H extensions and rural nursing programs offer the training.

The "Sea Change" hydrogen ferry
(Switch Maritime photo via Canary Media)

While some of America is going all-in on electric, hydrogen power is also a renewable energy option. "America's first hydrogen-fueled ferry is set to launch in San Francisco early next year after more than five years in development," reports Maria Gallucci of Canary Media. "As the milestone nears, the vessel's owner says it's already looking to deploy more zero-emissions ferries nationwide — particularly in places where aging, polluting diesel boats still ply rivers, sounds and coastlines.

Remember when your phone stayed in your house or workplace? Many younger Americans don't remember when phones were tied to a landline. "My tween will never know the sound of me calling her name from another room after the phone rings. She'll never sit on our kitchen floor, refrigerator humming in the background, twisting a cord around her finger while talking to her best friend," writes Julia Cho for The Atlantic. "'We don't even have a landline anymore,' people began to say proudly as the new millennium progressed. But this came with a quieter, secondary loss — the loss of the shared social space of the family landline."

From the redwood forests to Maine islands, 
Paul Bunyan stories live on. (NG photo)

Famed lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox Babe are the stuff of some superbly American tall tales. But as history tells it, those stories "were spun from ever more ridiculous yarns," reports Josh Keefe of National Geographic. "But there's much more to his story. . . . In Bangor, Maine, a framed birth certificate of Paul Bunyan hangs in the city clerk's office. . . . Despite Paul Bunyan's 'birth certificate' and the many children's books that place his birthplace in Maine, evidence suggests that Bunyan was invented sometime after logging operations moved west and began clearing almost all of the old-growth forests in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, says Michael Edmonds, a historian and author of Out of the Northwoods: The Many Lives of Paul Bunyan."

Well, maybe Paul Bunyan never lived in Bangor, Maine, but Stephen King and his wife Tabitha did. King shared a tour of their Bangor home, now their library, with John Williams of The Washington Post. "Fear not, the king of chills serves as a friendly guide to his library," Williams reports. King told him: "The house has been here since 1845; we've been here since 1976. . . . But we don't really live here anymore, and it's kind of a time capsule."

Hotly debated 'Try That in a Small Town' became a roaring success after CMT publicly took the video off its playlist

Jason Aldean performs in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
(Photo by Joshua Applegate, Getty Images, via Axios)

If there ever was an example of "all publicity is good publicity," it's Jason Aldean's controversial tune "Try That in a Small Town." The song sits at No. 2 on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 chart. The heated backlash is the propulsive force behind the song's climb to the top, reports Adam Tamburin of Axios Nashville. "The song depicts an exaggerated urban-rural divide in which cities are dominated by unrest that isn't tolerated in small towns."

The song dropped without drama in May, but when the video aired in mid-July, a maelstrom of criticism hit Country Music Television. CMT publicly yanked the video from its playlist, and the controversy hit the charts. Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist who runs the country music tipsheet The Morning Hangover, told Tamburin,"You couldn't ask for a better gift when it comes to promoting a record, especially for that core Jason Aldean audience, than what CMT did."

The song's ubiquity proves Bardella's point. Tamburin writes, "Billboard reports the song sold 228,000 digital singles last week, the largest sales week for a country song in more than a decade. It logged 11.6 million streams, a 547% jump from the week before. . . . The video remains popular on YouTube, where it has logged more than 18 million views since its July 14 release."

Critics claim the video is racist, encourages lynching and promotes gun violence. Factually speaking, "The video features a performance in front of Tennessee's Maury County Courthouse, which was the site of a 1946 race riot and a 1927 lynching," Tamburin reports. "Aldean has defended the song, tweeting that 'there is not a single lyric ... that references race or points to it.' At a concert last week, Aldean said his fans had pushed back against 'cancel culture'. . . . Bardella says the situation mirrors broader political debates over cancel culture, with country fans ultimately feeling defensive and entrenched. A better approach, he says, would be to discuss the context of the video without trying to keep people from seeing it." As of July 25, the Black Lives Matter images in the video were removed.

"Song of the day" picks from the Axios Nashville staff:
Nate's song of the day is "Small Town" by John Mellencamp.
Adam's song of the day is "Small Town Saturday Night" by Hal Ketchum.
Axios southern bureau chief Michael Graff's song of the day is "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" by Pearl Jam.
Copy editor Katie Lewis' song of the day is "Small Town Hypocrite" by Caylee Hammack featuring Chris Stapleton.

Willie's 90th birthday bash covers a century of American music, whose course he changed by moving back to Texas

Willie Nelson greeted Keith Richards at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday.
(Photo by Randall Michelson of EB Media, via Los Angeles Times)

"It’s not much of an exaggeration — and yet it defies logic — to say that you could trace the history of American music’s last 100 years during the two nights of “Willie Nelson 90: Long Story Short” at the Hollywood Bowl over the weekend. Jazz, country, gospel, blues, rock, Nashville pop, Americana, even hip-hop (well, he smokes with Snoop) are all seamlessly part of Nelson’s DNA, and all were represented over the dozens of tributes paid to him as he turned 90," Mikael Wood and Erin Osmon report for the Los Angeles Times.

More than 45 artists took the stage to honor Nelson; Osmon and Wood chose 10 outstanding moments, including Roseanne Cash and 86-year-old Kris Kristofferson, who sang “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again).” Sturgill Simpson "said the only reason he went to Nashville to make country records was 'because I grew up listening to country records by Willie Nelson' — records, he added, that exist 'outside of the box of what most people think country records can be.'" Other standoiuts: Beck, Chris Stapleton, George Strait, Allison Russell and Norah Jones, Lukas Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow and Keith Richards, who joined Willie for "a beautifully crusty version of Waylon Jennings’ 'We Had It All,' which sounded about a million years old, and Billy Joe Shaver’s very aptly titled 'Live Forever.'"

In advance of the concert, Michael Granberry of the Dallas Morning News did an overview of Nelson's career, which began in rural Texas, went to Nashville for songwriting, and returned to his home state: "Willie did more than change the course of American music with his risk-taking move from Nashville to Austin. Nearly half a century after the release of "Red Headed Stranger," his legacy extends to performances in the White House. To his fans and friends, Willie is a timeless icon. He shows not a shred of shame as the country’s most alluring pot smoker. And he somehow manages to rise above political and cultural divides, appealing to young and old, rich and poor, even to the most outspoken on the left and right." Joe Nick Patoski, who wrote the 2008 biography Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, told Granberry that Nelson is “the single most important Texan of the 20th and the 21st century, because he not only reflects — he defines Texas culture. No single person epitomizes the qualities that make Texans different from other people and separates Texas from the rest of the world, not just the United States.”

Benefit concert for Eastern Ky. flood victims raises $2 million

Chris Stapleton, who organized the concert, was its star.
(Photos by James Crisp for the Lexington Herald-Leader)

An all-star cast of country musicians from Eastern Kentucky raised $2 million last night at a concert for flood relief in the region, contributing critic Walter Tunis reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Organized by Chris Stapleton, the "Kentucky Rising" concert at Rupp Arena also included Tyler Childers, Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless, the latter two not announced in advance. "It was an occasion where multiple generations of Eastern Kentucky artists gathered to honor their artistic and cultural heritage and, in the process, help out their neighbors in a time of unfathomable crisis," Tunis writes.

Tyler Childers was another headliner.

"On the surface, Yoakam’s performance – his first Rupp outing on over two decades – seemed devoted exclusively to the sleekness of the Bakersfield country sound of which he has so long been a torchbearer.  "Yet, more than any other artist playing Kentucky Rising, he offered the most detailed imagery of his Eastern Kentucky (specifically, Pikeville) roots . . . Stapleton’s concluding set was as solid as oak without the guests as it was with them. The inflection and, to a great degree, intent of his singing was used to color songs rich with vintage country narratives."

The concert had some touches of Western Kentucky, which has a separate coalfield that spawned one of the most popular coal songs. "With all performers and band members onstage in an assemblage worthy of The Band’s The Last Waltz, Stapleton and company performed 'Paradise' together on the evening after what would have been the 76th birthday of its late composer, John Prine," Tunis reports. (At Nashville's Ryman Auditorium that night, another great cast paid tribute to Prine, American Songwriter reports.)

The recovery from the flood has been slow, and the impact is felt every day. "A 97-year-old Letcher County woman who received national attention in July for a photo of her surrounded by water in her home when flooding devastated Eastern Kentucky has died," the Herald-Leader's Valarie Honeycutt Spears reports. "Missy Amburgey Crovetti said her grandmother Mae Amburgey died Saturday, not fully aware that a photo of her sitting on a bed surrounded by four feet of water in her Letcher County home, had gone viral and brought her national attention. 'I believe she died of a broken heart,' said Crovetti, noting her grandmother missed her home. Amburgey had been staying in Alabama with her son for about a week, unable to return to her flood-ravaged home."

Mae Amburgey in her flooded home

(Photo by Gregory Amburgey)

Farm Aid to host 35th anniversary virtual festival on Sept. 26

Farm Aid announced recently that the organization will mark its 35th anniversary with a virtual festival. Farm Aid 2020 On the Road will air on Saturday, Sept. 26, from 8-11 p.m. ET on Farm Aid's YouTube channel, AXS TV, and Fans.com, according to the Farm Aid website.

"The goal of the virtual festival is to raise critical funds for and awareness of the organization and its mission, which it typically does through ticket sales to the annual in-person music and food festival. Farm Aid accepts donations year-round at www.farmaid.org/donate," according to a press release.
The festival will include performances from more than 20 artists, including Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, and more. Farmers from across the country will also share their stories about why they farm, how they stay resilient, and what they believe is the future of agriculture.

"This pandemic and so many other challenges have revealed how essential family farmers and ranchers are to the future of our planet,"  said Farm Aid President and founder Willie Nelson in a statement. "Farm Aid 2020 is going to give the whole country a chance to learn about the important work of farmers and how they’re contributing to our well-being, beyond bringing us good food."

Eastern Ky. native Chris Stapleton soars to success as one of country music's biggest stars

Chris Stapleton
(Photo: SavingCountryMusic.com)

Eastern Kentucky native Chris Stapleton has been cleaning up at awards ceremonies recently. Stapleton, who in February won two Grammy awards, picked up six Academy of Country Music awards Sunday night, including Male Vocalist of the Year, New Male Vocalist, Song of the Year for "Nobody to Blame" and Album of the Year for Traveller.

Last month Stapleton played two free concerts in his hometown of Paintsville, Ky., one for students at his old high school, Johnson Central, reports the Paintsville Herald. He donated $60,000 worth of instruments to the school band, Andrea Saddler reports for the Floyd County Times.

In anticipation of Stapleton having a big night on Sunday, CBS featured a special on him on its program "Sunday Morning." "Stapleton grew up in Eastern Kentucky, an area that has produced many big names in country music," Mark Strassmann reports. "Like Loretta Lynn, Stapleton came from a coal-mining family. Both singers attended local high schools. (Chris was a valedictorian at his.) After high school, he met some local songwriters and had a revelation," telling Strassmann, "I didn't know they would pay you money to sit in a room and write songs for other people. I always thought that George Strait was singing a song, he made it up, and that was the end of it. But the instant I found that out, that that could be a job, I thought, 'That's the job for me. I gotta figure out how to do that.'"

Stapleton relocated to Nashville, Strassman reports. Stapleton told him, "Four days later I had a publishing deal. Which is not—that is not anybody's story, but that's mine." Stapleton, 37, has seen his first album go platinum for topping 1 million sales. Stapleton told Strassmann, "I'm new to a lot of people, and that's true. I'm not new to a lot of people in Nashville. They're like, 'Man, I've known that guy for years. He's been buggin' everybody!"

While Stapleton is now enjoying success for his debut album he has been writing songs for others for many years. He has had six No. 1s on the country charts, with artists such as Tim McGraw ("Whiskey and You"), Sheryl Crow ("Homesick") and Adele ("If It Hadn't Been for Love") recording his music, Strassman reports. "Critics hailed Traveller and it sold respectably." After Stapleton and Justin Timberlake took to the stage in November at the Country Music Awards—where Stapleton won three awards—to perform "Tennessee Whiskey," sales soared. The album, which had been released in May 2015, "re-entered the Billboard charts at number one—in all genres."