One sweet world
September 18, 2005
By Dave Hoekstra
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Matthews and his wife Ashley were more than welcoming to myself and photographer Paul Natkin last spring when we visited their home in Seattle for the book Farm Aid: A Song for America (Rodale, $35, hardcover). In the course of a three-hour conversation in their backyard, Ashley (granting her first print interview ever) and Dave were deeply articulate and highly educated about eco-farm issues. Matthews is clearly in for one long haul, which makes for "One Sweet World" for the American family farmer.
Dave Matthews and his wife, Ashley Harper, live in a modest frame home on the outskirts of downtown Seattle. It is an old house full of young ideas. Their front yard is surrounded by a brown fence made from recycled Douglas fir. The timber came from the floor of a nearby 1910 school building. There are still lessons to be learned here.
A Farm Aid board member since 2001, Matthews is a deeply thoughtful voice for his agricultural beliefs. In February 2002, he purchased five farms of the University of Virginia's treasured Kluge property. He has preserved agriculture and forest land on the 1,261 acres, with an emphasis on organic farming and supporting local farmer/food consumer relationships. Harper is studying for her doctorate in naturopathic medicine (natural and nontoxic therapies) at Bastyr University, north of Seattle. Bastyr is one of the world's leading academic centers in natural health sciences.
Harper and Matthews have twin daughters, Grace and Stella. They were born a month before 9/11. The future is forever precious. The family eats organic. Matthews and Harper drive fuel-efficient cars, and as much as possible they walk to destinations. They buy recycled products. Harper designed a laminated chart on recycling methods that she posted on the refrigerator door. The family walks the walk.
"Farm Aid interested me before I was involved," Matthews said during a talk with his wife on their back porch overlooking the sunny garden. "I was drawn to the struggles of a culture that's at the root of this country. Then, when the band played for the first time in [Louisville] Kentucky, I liked the whole sense of it. It had a festival vibe, but it had community. It didn't matter if you were new singers like us or a legend like Willie. There was a sense of purpose involved that I enjoyed. It also made me reflect on my life, my own involvement, and how I live."
The Dave Matthews Band made its major American-venue debut at the Farm Aid 10th anniversary concert on Oct. 1, 1995, at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. The band preceded Hootie and the Blowfish, whose fans kept chanting "Hootie! Hootie! Hootie!" until about 30 seconds into the first song, whereupon the crowd stood awestruck. The Matthews Band played extended jazz-folk songs from its sophomore album, "Under the Table and Dreaming."
The band returned in 1997 and 1999. In 2001, Willie Nelson personally asked Matthews to serve on the Farm Aid board. Matthews has been a loyal friend to the Red Headed Stranger. Matthews has appeared annually at Farm Aids 2001-2004, giving his fans a unique chance to see him alone and acoustic.
"When I joined, it seemed like a good idea because this farming machine was attempting to take over every corner of our food supply," Matthews explained. "There was also this growing urge to sustain the family farmer. Those things became apparent to me in my interest in the quality of food I was eating, and soon thereafter the quality of food my family was eating. I'm involved for the big picture, and it seems the natural battle to support.
"It is one that is concerned on so many different levels with things I am concerned with: the health of the environment, the health of citizens, the health of the farm, the health of our culture. All of those fall on a very basic level right at how we grow food and what we eat. I can't think of a more universal purpose than the support and nurturing of healthy food from healthy farms."
Matthews, 38, is the youngest of the four faces of Farm Aid. His popularity has brought a new crop of fans into the Farm Aid family fold. Every new generation finds it increasingly difficult to locate farmers living among them. "It is important to give a young edge to Farm Aid," Matthews said. "The No. 1 thing that makes our country great is how knowledgeable young people are."
Roots to understanding
Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1969, he moved with his family to New York when his late father, John, was hired by IBM. His mother, Valerie, is an architect. After living in Cambridge, England, and returning to Johannesburg to attend high school, Matthews settled in Charlottesville, Va., in 1986. The Dave Matthews Band was formed there.
"Being a physicist, my father was a great believer in progress," he said. "But he also loved nature. He was a photographer, and outside of taking the occasional family photographs, all he did was photograph nature. He loved birds. That meant a lot to me growing up. Healthy progress also means we have to be concerned for the environment. That may have something to do with what I believe about farming."
Harper, 31, is from suburban Atlanta. Her father, Carroll, grew up on a farm and her mother, Susan, gardened. Carroll Harper was a salesman, and Susan was an elementary school media specialist. "I got into [farming] in Charlottesville," Harper said, "being interested in health and then being interested in organics and growing my own garden."
In 1999, Matthews and Harper moved to Seattle so Harper could study naturopathy. As her husband went off to get a bottle of Fat Tire beer, she said, "Dave has been an amazing Mr. Mom. I'm gone before they wake up in the morning, and he reads to them downstairs. He'll put them to bed at night."
Once they settled in Seattle, Matthews and his neighbor designed the family garden and patio. Matthews even built a brick wall: "It was back-breaking, but it makes me feel great when I look at it now," he said as he peered out at the garden. "The biggest reason was so we'd have more space to plant. We eat from our garden."
Seattle offers more of a wealth of quality food than most major cities in America. "There's more availability of locally farmed and organic supermarkets here," said Matthews, who was the unofficial host of Farm Aid 2004, held at the Muckleshoot Indian Reservation near Auburn, outside Seattle.
"I think sometimes people come to visit us just so they can go to the Whole Foods we have here. It is awesome. And the smaller market is thriving. There were concerns when Whole Foods started making headway in Seattle that it was going to damage the smaller organic and locally farm-based supermarkets and co-ops. In fact, it's done the opposite. They are growing. There is an awareness here that hopefully is a trend that will spread throughout the country.
"The only downside I see is that it is generally more expensive. As more organizations like Farm Aid promote healthy and locally grown foods, then the prices will begin to reflect what people can afford. As things become more available, the prices will come down."
Matthews does his own shopping and can get enthusiastic about what he finds in Seattle grocery stores. "Shopping is one of my favorite things," he said. "The more that people become aware of the health and social benefits of buying organic or small, locally farmed food, [they also discover it's] the taste. A tomato is a tomato until you taste a tomato that's grown organically. My wife actually hated tomatoes. Then we started eating organic food -- because of her -- and now she loves tomatoes.
"And meats, too. I know there are people who would say if you're eating meat, it doesn't matter if it's organic or not, it's destructive to the environment. But food that is grown with care and animals that are raised and slaughtered with concern for their well-being, with the idea that if they're unhealthy and unhappy, the food isn't going to be as good -- I tell you the quality is a different flavor. It sort of multiplies."
Down on the farms
Matthews' Scottsville, Va., farms are managed by Kevin and April Fletcher under the company name of Best of What's Around. Six full-time people work on the farm year-round. The business is named after a 2001 Matthews hit, in which he sings: "Whatever tears at us/Whatever holds us down/And if nothing can be done/We'll make the best of what's around."
"In the early years we didn't want to say, 'Dave Matthews Farm,'" Fletcher said in an interview from Scottsville. "We want it to be about something more than Dave Matthews, because we really believe in what we're doing. But at the same time, it would be stupid not to have some connection with this famous do-gooder. He came up with the name. He also liked the idea that the name reflects the fact we're producing the best-quality food possible."
Best of What's Around produces eggs, vegetables, herbs, honey, broiler chicken and beef. Jersey Black Giants are fed only certified organic grains grown under environmentally safe methods. Cheese, lamb and pork are in the farm's future.
"When they bought this farm, there wasn't an animal here," Fletcher said. "These were once five separate farms. In the 1980s, John Kluge bought these farms and built an infrastructure of roads to connect them. He was farming conventionally. He had a state-of-the-art confinement feedlot. He was raising beef for big markets all over the country."
In May 2001, Kluge gave the land to the University of Virginia. The Kluge farms included homes, cottages, cattle and storage barns, silos, equipment, grain sheds and a feed complex. Not in the farming business, the university leased the property to a corn and soybean farmer. When Matthews purchased the farms for $5.3 million, he inherited the farm buildings -- and nothing else around.
"Not a single tool, not a single animal," said Fletcher. "The Matthewses are in the process of creating something from scratch."
As the Matthews farm grows, Farm Aid continues to grow as a strong force. Matthews explained, "Farm Aid is paying attention to constant attempts by special-interest farms that want to get their feet in the door of organics. There has to be an awareness that if it were up to these big agribusinesses, anything that is alive will be [labeled] 'organic.' There are people trying to dumb down the rules of organic."
Harper added, "You want to know what you're getting when you're buying it."
Matthews continued, "Absolutely. You don't want something mislabeled.
"A push and pull has to take place," he said. "We want to push the things that are entrenched in a direction so that they are caring for the people they are serving. If we can instill the very uncorporate philosophy on giant corporate farmers that they want to produce something that will benefit the recipient -- that is a giant breakthrough.
"At the same time, we don't want them to destroy the rules of absolutely organic and healthy food. There has to be a bit of give and take. That doesn't mean anyone who is attempting to get there but not doing enough is completely evil. We have to be pushing the envelope on how good food can be, and we have to be pulling the status quo along with us. Farm Aid has been a great organization for both those things."
Matthews and Harper visit Virginia during the holidays and before the band's annual summer tour. "Since Ashley's been in school, we're here in Seattle," Matthews said. "We started our family here. This is the most grown-up part of my life, and what I'm most excited about is being in Seattle. It's an incredible community, and I just love it."
The afternoon sun slipped behind a garage Matthews uses as studio space. Matthews got up and walked through the kitchen and living room to the bright front yard. Harper peeked out the kitchen window. Children were coming home from school. The sun deflected off the old fence, across the earth and into a new day.
This essay is reprinted from Farm Aid: A Song for America, foreword by Willie Nelson and featuring the voices of Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews ©2005 by Farm Aid. Permission granted by Rodale Inc.
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