In an interview, Neil Young explained why he only wants to play in halls or on open-air stages in the future, which do not use animal meat from factory farming in the gastronomy. He was a guest on Canadian radio station CBC to talk about his and Crazy Horse’s latest album, World Record. Most recently, Young played a concert in 2019 and then stopped touring due to the pandemic.
Young’s decision to only perform in locations that don’t offer factory-farmed meat products is about his principles: “When I look at the compromises I would have to make, the things that I don’t believe in, that I do would have to support, then that doesn’t turn me on.”
In addition, the 77-year-old is already well advanced in his event planning: “I can take care of the electricity for the event location, I can keep it ecologically clean. I can keep the sound system, lights and electricity in the building clean. I can make all my vehicles eco-friendly. I have the right fuel. I can do all that. But the food – all these places are fed by factory farms,” he tells presenter Tom Power.
Live animals in factory farming, they are often not kept appropriate to their species and sometimes force-fed. In addition, the proportion of greenhouse gases emitted by livestock farming should be similar to that caused by “all cars and trucks together”. Greenpeace.
The Canadian reiterates his decision: “I can’t do it. I believe in what I believe and it’s backed by science. I know what is happening on our planet, what caused it and what we continue to do, and I cannot support buildings, organizations and businesses that are not changing that.”
As early as 1985, Neil Young campaigned for the preservation and support of farms in the USA with “Farm Aid”. The first concert was organized by Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp and Neil Young was not only there from the start but is still one of the organizers today. The last concert Neil Young gave in 2019 was the Farm Aid concert at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin.