Neil Young’s Tour Is Earth-Friendly

Saving the family farm, helping the Earth and reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil – they all go together for Neil Young on his “Greendale” tour.

Young rolled into town with a fleet of buses and trucks running on biodiesel, an environmentally friendly fuel made from renewable resources such as soybean oil and recycled cooking oil. He said switching to biodiesel was his idea.

“Rather than talk about it, I figured just do it,” Young said, noting there’s an environmentalist character in his new show, which features actors performing on stage along with the music.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, the veteran Canadian rocker said he can still be a capitalist and embrace the environment.

“I’m just trying to make a point. There are other ways to be self-sustaining,” the 58-year-old said.

As a member of Farm Aid for 18 years, Young said he’s always looking for ways to help the family farmer. He said there are millions of acres of unfarmed crop land in the United States and Canada that could be tapped for renewable energy.

But Young knows it’s a struggle to persuade people to end their reliance on fossil fuels during the pro-oil tenure of President Bush.

“You can’t change the Bush administration with this. I mean, to them, I’m a tree hugger,” he said.

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