MARCH 2018 GERMINATION.CA 7 author Andria Jones-Bitton, a professor in the university’s Department of Population Medicine. “Some of the producer comments leave little doubt about the impact their job and culture is having on them,” she says. “One said, ‘We are not invincible, but we feel we must be.’ Another said, ‘What makes me the most upset is that I have everything I dreamed of — love, family and a farm — and all I feel is overwhelmed, out-of-control and sad.’” Tough and Stoic While there’s a general understanding that farm- ers and others in the ag community deal with mental health concerns at a high rate, what is often not so obvious is exactly why. According to Janet Smith, program manager for Manitoba Farm, Rural & Northern Support Services, it’s the very thing that helps farmers to be success- ful that also serves as their Achilles heel when it comes to mental health struggles. “Farmers are known for their independence, their pride, but also their resilience. Consequently, they’re not great at reaching out for help,” Smith says. Manitoba Farm, Rural & Northern Support Services provides telephone and online counsel- ling to farmers and other rural Manitobans. “We know agriculture is a very volatile industry, farming especially. You’ll have ups and downs related to weather, government policy, markets, input costs, the list goes on. “It impacts people in lots of different ways. The thing is, all those things are out of an indi- vidual producer’s control, and when things are beyond your control and aren’t going well, it can create long-term levels of stress, which can put a strain on our mental wellbeing.” Iowa’s Michael Rosmann is a psychologist and farmer whose life’s work involves improv- ing the mental health of the agricultural popula- tion. He experienced the 1980s American Farm Crisis firsthand, which was a precursor to his life’s mission of mental health activism among the farming community. “It was perhaps the roughest time we had in the U.S. since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We lost both farms we bought. We simply couldn’t manage everything,” he says. “By 1990, things had improved for me farm- ing-wise, but in a moment of haste I stuck my foot in a combine and lost the toes on my right foot. That was a life-changing event, because it taught me that maybe I was trying to do too much — and sometimes maybe for the wrong reasons, as well.” Rosmann, who received his PhD in clini- cal psychology from the University of Utah, is the founder of AgriWellness Inc., a nonprofit organization that operates in seven states, and is similar to Manitoba Farm, Rural & Northern Support Services. Rosmann says it’s not just the fact that agriculture is inherently stressful which makes things difficult for those involved in it. Common behaviours that farmers exhibit often cause or exacerbate depression and anxiety, he adds. “We know that farmers, especially during harvest, don’t get enough sleep. They work almost around the clock. When we are deprived of sleep, we are more dangerous to ourselves and others. Ten hours of accumulated sleep defi- ciency makes our reaction time and our judg- ment similar to what it is when we have a blood alcohol level of .08,” he says. “It’s not just that farming is hard work. It often doesn’t pay enough to cover all the bills, depending on commodity prices, weather and so forth. In the U.S., 80 per cent of farms have an off-farm source of income to supplement what is earned from cropping or livestock pro- duction. There aren’t many professions in which that is the case, where people undertake other activities in order to maintain their first choice for a way of life.” Rosmann has developed a theory to attempt to explain why farmers work themselves to the point where they compromise their mental health. Humans have a basic drive to acquire suf- ficient territory to produce the food and shelter required by their families and communities. This genetically programmed instinct impels farmers to hang onto their land at all costs. This “agrar- ian imperative” drives farmers to work incredibly hard, to endure unusual pain and hardship and to take uncommon risks. Kim Keller of the Do More Agriculture Foundation says that sort of drive is what defines most people in agriculture, but it can lead to psychological difficulties like depression. “We view ourselves as tough and stoic. We don’t talk about our feelings and we don’t think we should need help,” Keller says. Foundation co-founder Lesley Kelly agrees. She and her husband, Matt, have a 6,000-acre family farm in Saskatchewan. Over the years, after struggling with mental health challenges of their own, they’ve come to realize that a suc- cessful harvest hinges on the general wellbeing of the farmer. 35% 45% 58% 40% OF PRODUCERS MEET THE CRITERIA FOR DEPRESSION CLASSIFICATION ARE CLASSIFIED AS HAVING HIGH STRESS MEET THE CRITERIA FOR ANXIETY CLASSIFICATION SAY THEY WOULD FEEL UNEASY ABOUT SEEKING PROFESSIONAL HELP DUE TO “WHAT PEOPLE MIGHT THINK” “WEVIEW OURSELVES ASTOUGH ANDSTOIC. WEDON’T TALK ABOUTOUR FEELINGS ANDWE DON’TTHINK WESHOULD NEEDHELP.” –KimKeller