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Mental Health of Farmers

 
pollinator
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At my current farm internship, the farm owner has told me that farmers and lawyers have the highest suicide rates among occupations, but I want to hear the whole story. I'd like to know where she's getting this statistic and whether this refers only to industrial monoculture farms or also with organic farms that have a diversified crop selection and make use of regenerative farming and permaculture techniques.

Part of the reason that I'm asking is because I already have a handful of preexisting psychiatric medical conditions. I want to take precautions before attempting to start a farm business. There's a good chance that at least a few members of this permies forum have at least tried some kind of commercial farming in the past and would know what sources of stress may exist.
 
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I can't say for certain, but I know that in my previous careers the main reason for people overloading was the type of personality that likes to do the work (example: caring for plants) is rarely also the kind of person who deals well with sales, bureaucracy, taxes etc. Trying to do basically two full time jobs that don't relate to each other at all tends to shred your sanity. If someone is of the kind of person who sees suicide as an out, they might take it. Having lots of money invested in it all only adds to the stress.

 
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Pearl raises a very legit point.   Administration is its own area of expertise. Too often, to invent some examples, a nurse, teacher, policeman, etc, will be promoted into an administrative position without adequate training in administration, with a resulting disaster.  A decade or so ago a town near me elected a social worker as mayor.  While building consensus is nice, sometimes an immediate decision has to be made and orders given.
 
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From a mental health website:

Highest Suicide Rates By Profession

Highest Suicide Rates By Profession
1. Medical Doctors
2. Dentists
3. Police Officers
4. Veterinarians
5. Financial Services
6. Real Estate Agents
7. Electricians
8. Lawyers
9. Farmers

10. Pharmacists


Five Industry Groups With The Highest Suicide Rates
1. Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (males)
2. Construction (males)
3. Other Services (example: automotive repair) (males)
4. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting (males)
5. Transportation and Warehousing (males and females)

The high suicide rate among farm workers is a heart-wrenching issue that is often overlooked in most discussions about mental health in the workplace. This tragic phenomenon can be attributed to a complex interplay of factors that negatively impact the overall emotional well-being of these essential workers.

Most notably, the nature of agricultural labor is both physically demanding and mentally exhausting, with long hours spent working in isolation, putting undue pressure on farm workers. Additionally, unstable incomes, increasingly challenging weather conditions due to climate change, and the unpredictable nature of crop yields substantially heighten their financial stress and insecurity.

Furthermore, rural communities often lack the necessary resources and infrastructure to provide adequate mental health care and crisis support, leaving farm workers feeling helpless, alienated, and overwhelmed in their darkest moments.

 
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John, I see what you're saying in my field. Professionals in my area have super specific skills, but we are also independent and so also end up doing all our marketing, consumer relations, bookkeeping, outreach, strategic planning, continuing education, etc all by ourselves.

I've heard this "factoid" about farmers many times but never seen any real documentation. But I believe it-- it seems to me that farmers work with very small margins, their markets are unpredictable (you don't know how much you're going to make til the moment of sale), the conditions are unpredictable (weather? fire? disease? frost? and things you can do absolutely nothing to control), large operators have had a tendency to want to pressure smaller farmers to sell, and also equipment and now inputs are amazingly expensive. So is staffing, so farmers often work long, long hours to do everything themselves, and often hold down a job in town to pay the bills. And still they are often indebted, which is a terrible weight to carry as you're working like a dog.

I think considering mental health as you plan any future move is smart. Having an outlet to bounce ideas off of, and to vent when you need to, is a good thing. No matter what area you're in, no matter what your history. You're a smart cookie!
 
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Farmers are on several top ten lists for professions with an above average rate of suicide. The reasons on several of those lists include long hours, irregular hours, financial stress, social isolation, and pesticide exposure. ( I haven't seen study data for the last one, but if you're thinking organic it doesn't sound like a factor for you.) What you farm, how you manage debt and whether your income stream is diversified would strongly affect the first three. Social isolation can sneak up on a person. Things like a regularly meeting club or sports team, church/temple, book club, swap meet, etc help, but it's easy to let your stress talk you out of showing up when things get rough.
 
John F Dean
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Hi Tereza,

There is a huge factor for farmers that is often ignored ….shame.   Imagine the great granddad started the farm.   Granddad inherited it …..then your father left it to you .    And, you put it under.
 
Tereza Okava
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absolutely. or you have to sell it off piece by piece to survive, and watch it being consumed.

i would also wonder about the "otis" situation: people's kids may not want to farm, so why continue as they're getting older and things are getting harder?
 
John F Dean
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Here in the US there could be all sorts of legal knots.  Many farms cannot legally be sold due to wills, trusts, etc.   Great granddad might have thought that was a great idea. But here I sit on a farm that I have no interest in, it is failing, and I can’t sell it……or…more likely ….I can only sell to a blood relative.  
 
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I'd also add to the mix, the lack of appreciation for farmers. I'm tending to hear all about the "high cost of food", but not about how wonderful farmers are, how hard they work, and how much they deserve to be paid for what they do.

Alas, a huge amount of the meager profits in the food "industry" go to the middle men. We need to reinvent farming but I'm not sure how, but treating it as an "industry" has led to many abuses of the land, the farm workers, farm animals, etc. Using a permaculture, organic, restoration, wholistic approach is a good start. Avoiding debt is critical as it is one more stressor that makes the banks happy and the farmer unhappy.

I also totally agree with Sepp Holzer's commitment to *never* have the farm dependent on a single income source.
 
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There is a lot of good discussion around why a farmer might struggle and/or commit suicide. I think you have all brought up some good points. I would also like to point out how many people I have heard of or read about who leave the stressful city life and turn to homesteading/farming as stress relief. Running your own business can be freeing or stressful or both depending on your health and personality. Running your own business is not for everyone, but there are others who will never do anything except that. It can go both ways.

Having said that, I want to answer the question behind the question. I don't know what "preexisting psychiatric medical conditions" you are dealing with, and I don't need to know. But as someone who has dealt with quite a few mental conditions myself (depression and anxiety combined with foggy brain, forgetfulness, fatigue, and more), I would highly recommend that you get yourself as healthy as you can before diving in on your own. I think interning is a great starting point. I was barely holding things together for quite a few years. Thankfully I got a really good ND who was able to get me started on my path back to health. Five years ago there was no way that I could have come close to running a business like a farm. Now... some of those dreams are starting to come back. I don't want someone setup for failure. I think you need to make sure you have good support period, and do what you can for the conditions (medicine, diet, counseling, etc) now, before you start farming.
 
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John F Dean wrote:Pearl raises a very legit point.   Administration is its own area of expertise. Too often, to invent some examples, a nurse, teacher, policeman, etc, will be promoted into an administrative position without adequate training in administration, with a resulting disaster.  A decade or so ago a town near me elected a social worker as mayor.  While building consensus is nice, sometimes an immediate decision has to be made and orders given.




There is a saying, you are always promoted 1 level above what you are qualified to do because you do all the levels below above that level....

One of my jobs I was in management was given 4 months of training for the new system that was coming online,    all the others were given 2 weeks to prepare for the new system.          I saw the train wreck coming, and abandoned ship before that happened.          I watched in utter horror as the demo of the new system was done before all of management on the big bosses  computer.        It was at this point the process blew up and failed,   I then asked the boss when was the timeline of when this would be implemented, he shrieked at me, when do you think?!?!?     I replied, I was only there to take news back to my team as I was gone from the company in 2 weeks and needed to take the info.          

Dilbert is real life, not just in cartoons.
 
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It is a very sad reality. Farming has the highest rate the last I knew but how can they not? we are talking family land that goes back generations and it’s lost in an instant because of a bad decision, bad weather, failed crops, or divorce. That is a lot of guilt on a person who has worked 365 days a year for years…

My farm is one of the oldest in the nation started in 1746. Because of an 8 year marriage that failed I have to sell it. No choice; court ordered.

It doesn’t seem fair, but no one cares.

I am mentally okay now, but I have attempted suicide twice. Once in 2005 as a part time farmer and once in 2019 as a full time farmer. I reached out for help in 2919 but got none. My pastor did not even read my letter explaining my intent to do myself in.

With our access to guns, a ways to make things look like an accident, farmer suicide is wayyyyyyyyy higher than what the statistics show.I have been in farming all my
Life and can tell you many strange farm accidents that I think were really suicides.

It’s disgustedly sad

 
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John F Dean wrote:Here in the US there could be all sorts of legal knots.  Many farms cannot legally be sold due to wills, trusts, etc.   Great granddad might have thought that was a great idea. But here I sit on a farm that I have no interest in, it is failing, and I can’t sell it……or…more likely ….I can only sell to a blood relative.  



Put it in a trust and grant a 99 year lease.  
 
Ryan M Miller
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Now that members of the Permies forum have shared the factors behind the high suicide rate and depression among farmers, I want to hear what strategies members have employed to cope with or minimize depression and anxiety on the farm. The only member so far who I know his strategy is Joseph Lofthouse, but that's just because I also follow him on Facebook.
 
Tereza Okava
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Ryan, have you read this loooooong old thread?
It veers unexpectedly in a few different directions (!), but also has a lot of people sharing their experiences, their suggestions, and their stories. It pops up every so often and is worth looking at.
https://permies.com/t/96179/Stress-Anxiety-Grief-Manifestations
 
John F Dean
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As with most things in life, the devil is in the details. I took the time to examine several such lists, and they seem to vary considerably depending upon the date of the study. In 2016 farmers were pretty high in the list. In 2023 doctors and lawyers.   Of course, those are the years the studies were published ….not necessarily the years the data was collected.

From my background, medical doctors have generally been at or near the top of the list, but I bet farmers rise to the top in years of serious financial crunch.  Of course, I am speaking of serious crunch for the farmers … not necessarily the overall economy.
 
pollinator
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One of the things farmers struggle with is isolation, they're so busy growing crops and worrying about deadlines, getting things to market, some of them are milking cows at all hours and not getting enough sleep depending on what type of farm it is, living in rural areas where mental health services are nearly non-existant.  And so I think something that could be helpful with mental health differences and farming is doing it in an intentional community/agrivillage setting.  That reduces the isolation notably and increases the number of hands available to help with the farm tasks.  I know intentional community isn't for everyone, but it can help with some of these things I think.
 
Matt McSpadden
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Hi Riona,
I would also add to your comment, a family. So many families are split and/or scattered. There was a time, not that long ago, where you might have 3 generations living on the farm. This would help quite a bit with loneliness.
 
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