U.S. search for how to ask for help reached a record high this year.
My grandpa owns a multigenerational farm in Thorntown, Indiana. The farm has been in the family for over a hundred years. My dad farms, and then I help them farm as well. And I’m also an active member in 4-H and FFA.
Back in 2019, I started researching farm stress, because I saw stress in my own family, specifically with my dad. I started writing an FFA speech called “Stop the Stigma.” Farmers are two times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. And there’s so many built-up factors that lead to that, especially with the economy. So from 2013 to 2017, the net income of farming decreased by 40 percent, which is drastic. About 450 farmers throughout the Midwest died by suicide. Then we had COVID hit. The American Farm Bureau Federation found that about 66 percent of farmers stated the pandemic negatively impacted their mental health. And 87 percent of farmers said it was important to reduce the stigma of mental health in the agricultural community.
“Farmers are now starting to come out and say, ‘We are stressed and we see the stress in our friends and our families.’”
Farmers are now starting to come out and say, “We are stressed and we see the stress in our friends and our families.” And something needs to be done because farmers are hurting, and the families of the farmers are hurting. As agriculture, we need to be resilient; we are resilient. But we definitely need to push some programs and to provide solutions to our farmers. Farmers are stubborn; we all know that. We’ve got to train people that are meeting with farmers on a daily basis, so that they can look for the signs of stress, and that they can help those farmers cope with stress. It’s going to help them so much more just to know that they are not alone, that they’re not the only one that’s feeling this way.
With my generation, we are more open to the conversation of mental health than previous generations are. We can start the conversation, and then maybe the generations before us can open up to the conversation and start to look at themselves and say, “I need help.” Even though we are a very young generation, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have things to offer or we don’t have insight, because we are the children of farm families. Stress doesn’t just affect the farmer, it affects the spouses, and it affects the kids. So it doesn’t matter who starts the conversation, somebody has to say something. Then we can get a whole bunch of other people to join in with us. And then farmers will start to realize they’re not alone.