6 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2018 and recent launch of the Do More Agriculture Foundation, a not-for-profit organization focusing on mental health in agriculture across Canada. It had its formal launch at the FarmTech conference in Edmonton, Alta., in February. Since then, Keller says an important conversation has ramped up in the agriculture community, and it’s one that’s been a long time coming. “We’ve known for years that depression, anxiety and suicide are huge issues in the agriculture community, but it’s a topic people have been reluctant to talk about. Like in the rest of society, there’s a lack of understanding and knowledge about mental health in agriculture.” The statistics paint a disquieting picture of just how seri- ous an issue mental illness is in the ag community. Farmers are among the most vulnerable when it comes to mental health, according to a 2016 study from the University of Guelph. Stress, anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion and burnout are all higher among farmers than among other groups, the survey shows. As well, Canadian farmers are more stressed than those living and working elsewhere. The survey found 45 per cent of survey respondents had high stress. Another 58 per cent were classified with varying levels of anxiety, and 35 per cent with depression. Overall, that’s two-to-four times higher than farmers studied in the United Kingdom and Norway, says study WENEED TOTALKABOUT MENTAL HEALTH INAGRICULTURE The launch of the Do More Ag Foundation is helping shed light on mental health struggles among farmers, and how we can empower ourselves to manage depression and anxiety. Marc Zienkiewicz LAST SUMMER, Saskatchewan farmer Kim Keller received a message on Twitter from someone she’d never met. He had just lost a farming client to suicide. Two years earlier, through a company she co-founded, Keller was involved in a t-shirt campaign meant to raise awareness of mental health in farming. She’s subse- quently become known in Twitter circles for her knowledge on the topic. “He was hoping I’d be able to help direct him to some resources to help the family. It really bothered me that two years after we started the t-shirt campaign, nothing had really changed,” she says. “There was nothing I could give him that I couldn’t have given him two years prior. So I sent out a tweet saying we needed to do more for our farmers in the area of mental health.” That one tweet created a snowball effect. Keller’s friend Lesley Kelly joined in the conversation and began talking about her family’s own mental health journey. A seed was planted that led to the creation