Farmers Facts

Thousands of farmers drove tractors into Washington DC in February 1979 to protest farm policy. Police barricaded the tractors on the National Mall, and locals called them a nuisance. A Presidents Day blizzard then buried the city under two feet of snow. The stranded tractors were among the only vehicles still moving. Farmers plowed streets and drove doctors and nurses to hospitals. The city that scorned them started thanking them.

Bill Gross's parents couldn't afford to pass down their North Dakota farm, so he became a 747 captain. Over the Pacific, he told a copilot his retirement plan: buy a tractor and help farmers in crisis. A friend said not to wait, so in 2005, still flying, he started Farm Rescue. It has helped more than 1,300 families and is looking for the next one this harvest.

Willie Nelson helped start Farm Aid in 1985 to raise money for family farmers. In 1991 the government put his own 44-acre Texas ranch up for auction over back taxes. More than 40 farmers, some from South Dakota, came to the courthouse and asked bidders to stay away. A lawyer for a farm group bought the ranch and held it until Willie got it back. At 93, he played Farm Aid again in September.