Farming is a high-stress profession with significant mental health implications, but there’s hope in community and resources.
Farming is and always has been a high-risk profession. From weather extremes to wild market swings to production challenges of countless kinds, farmers carry an intensive work and mental load all season long. To make farming even higher pressure, many farmers integrate their life — their house, family, hobbies and community — right into their farm, which means ‘leaving work at the end of the day’ just isn’t an option. Being a farmer means juggling many hats, from agronomy and production expert to salesman and marketer, to mechanic, weather forecaster, innovator and more. And, above all, being a farmer means maintaining hope that the many handfuls of dollars one puts into the ground at the beginning of the season will translate to acceptable returns at harvest.
It’s no wonder that these factors can be overwhelming, concerning, confusing and, at times, devastating.
Daunting Statistics
A survey conducted just before COVID (2018) by the University of Guelph showed that 35 per cent — more than one in three — of farmers suit the classification for depression. Fifty-eight per cent — more than half — suit the classification for anxiety, and 68 per cent — more than two in three — are more susceptible to chronic stress than the general population.
COVID added an extra heavy helping of challenges to farmers’ already over-full plates, challenges that haven’t entirely disappeared post-COVID. Some of these challenges included work disruptions, staffing difficulties, supply chains uncertainty, political and health stress, and changing market demands. Through COVID, isolation — already a contributing factor to mental health challenges — became an even larger problem, and many social norms that might help mitigate isolation have still not recovered.
A survey conducted in 2021 by the Do More Agriculture Foundation (DMAF), the national voice and champion for mental health in Canadian agriculture, showed that the overall mental health of farmers fell into continuous decline post COVID.
In 2021, the University of Guelph conducted a follow-up study to their 2018 study on mental health, recognizing the toll COVID took on farmers. In that study, it found farmers had 20-30 per cent higher rates of suicide than any other occupation in Canada. In fact, it found one in four Canadian producers “felt their life was not worth living, wished they were dead, or had contemplated taking their own life in the past 12 months”. One in four: that’s a quarter of your farming neighbours, colleagues and friends… and maybe it’s you too.
“One Big Pile of Potatoes”
2024 hasn’t been an easy year for many Canadian potato producers. In the west, a glut of potatoes caused by ideal 2023 growing conditions across the west, heavy contracting of acres, and a huge crop of spuds coming out of Idaho meant moving potatoes to processing proved a challenge and, in many cases, a significant stressor this spring and summer.
“It’s one big pile of potatoes, and we’re a part of it,” says Terence Hochstein, executive director for the Potato Growers Alberta (PGA). “…The potato industry is very, very tightly supply and demand, and you need to produce just enough.”
“You don’t want to waste food,” he adds. “You work hard. You want to feed people. You want to do exactly what you’re supposed to do, and it’s a little bit disheartening, but in the end, the potatoes have a shelf-life.”
With no room in the market, huge quantities of potatoes were given away to foodbanks, fed to livestock in feedlots, sent for flakes, or otherwise sold for pennies on the dime to whomever could utilize the excess product. Ultimately, some growers had no choice but to bury their excess spuds to make room in storage for this year’s harvest.
Growers hoping for strong returns and less stress from this year’s crop started the season on a strong note: moisture and temperatures were near ideal across much of Canada, starting the crop off well. Unfortunately, heat and drought hit in many regions as the season progressed, leaving plants — and farmers — stressed, and translating to lower than hoped yields at harvest.
These intense external stresses, together with skyrocketing costs, increasing inflation, rising interest rates and more, can sometimes feel like too heavy a load. The good news is that no one has to carry the load alone.
We’re in it Together
In potato production and farming more broadly, the struggle of one is the struggle of many.
“It’s a very tight knit circle and we’re lucky that way,” Hochstein says. He says growers lean on each other in a variety of ways, from across-the-fence chats to more formalized programs. For example, he says, “new growers are partnering up with existing growers, and it’s kind of a mentorship program,” that supports new farmers and reinforces the kinship of the potato grower community.
Sometimes, though, coffee with a buddy or talking shop with a neighbour isn’t enough. Help is available for farmers who may be struggling above and beyond the support peers can provide, or who may not want to share their struggles openly with friends, family and colleagues.
Do More Ag was founded in 2018 by Kim Keller, a farmer who realized after losing a farming friend and neighbour to suicide that agriculture needs to — as the name suggests — do more. Today, Do More Ag plays a significant role in promoting a national conversation about increasing emotional and mental health support for farmers. It’s a conversation that’s gaining necessary traction.
“You’re very hard pressed to go to a farm show or a farm meeting and there not be some type of mental health presentation,” says Keller. “The conversations are happening, but they’re also happening around the kitchen tables. They’re happening in shops. They’re happening on platforms on social media, which we didn’t see before.”
Do More Ag offers a huge variety of supports, contacts and resources on their website (www.domoreag.com), from phone support lines to mental health printouts to programs, workshops, wellness tips and more. Many of these programs provide access to professionals who have specific training in agriculture and can discuss concerns around farm related stressors.
One of Do More Ag’s programs is a free, completely anonymous peer-to-peer support program called Ag Talks, which allows those in the farming community to “type it out” with peers who can understand the unique pressures of farming.
“We don’t know your age. We don’t know your name. We don’t know anything. All we know is that you’re needing some type of peer support and we’re here to help you,” says Keller.
The program is supported by licensed and trained clinicians who monitor any type of group chat and are able to reach out to anyone they feel may need more support.
Reach Out
While resources exist, the biggest stumbling block for many to accessing those resources is pride: a worry that admitting struggles with mental health is somehow admission of weakness. While it’s relatively easy to talk about a physical ailment like a broken leg or sore throat or gastrointestinal illness, too often people struggle to talk about their mental health. In fact, however, mental health is exactly like physical health: it’s entirely normal for everyone to go through periods of better and worse mental health, just as physical health is sometimes better and sometimes worse. The strongest among us know how to put themselves back on a path towards mental health by seeking help.
If you think someone in your circle might be struggling, reach out. Simply asking, “Hey, I notice you’ve been quieter than normal. Is everything okay?” can be a lifeline to someone who is suffering in silence. You don’t have to have all the answers to help them through crisis: a simple referral to a resource like Do More Ag can make all the difference.
If you are struggling, reach out. Share your concerns with a trusted friend or colleague. Begin the conversation with your family doctor. Reach out to Do More Ag. You are not alone.
“There’s multiple avenues for support within our communities, and we need to use them all,” says Keller.
