5 • 652 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2022
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Farmers are independent people. But there are some things you don’t want to do alone. Like struggle with mental health. In this episode, we talk with soybean farmer Bob Worth about his experience with depression during the 1980s farm crisis. Hosts Mitchell and Tara also discuss new efforts in agriculture to address mental health issues with Kate Downes of New York FarmNet.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
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0:00.0 | Welcome to the Fieldwork podcast. I'm Tara Vaynerducson. And I am Mitchell Hora. |
0:07.0 | We are a podcast by farmers for farmers. You know, Tara, usually we talk about sustainable ag and, |
0:13.3 | you know, things like cover crops and soil health and that kind of stuff. And we've talked about |
0:17.3 | prairie strips and all kinds of cool things. And but once in a a while, we've got to address some other ag issues as well. |
0:23.6 | Yeah, and today is one of those days. |
0:25.1 | We're actually going to be talking about coping with farm and rule stress and all things, |
0:30.1 | mental health. |
0:30.9 | Yeah, this is a super important topic. |
0:33.2 | And, you know, one that has definitely been getting a little bit more pressed lately, |
0:36.7 | a little bit more awareness about it. |
0:38.7 | And actually, men in agriculture have some of the highest suicide rates of any industry and any demographic in the country. |
0:47.2 | And a lot of farmers often were out on our farms alone. |
0:50.9 | We kind of keep ourselves. |
0:52.5 | And yet, you know, we have a lot of stress. |
0:55.0 | There's a lot of outside issues. There's a lot of things that can cause issues in the workplace |
1:00.0 | for those folks that are out on the farm. Later in this episode, we'll speak with Kate Downs, |
1:05.7 | outreach director at New York FarmNet. That organization has been working on suicide prevention since the 1980s. |
1:12.4 | Well, the family dynamic on a family farm is, you know, not for the faint of heart. |
1:18.7 | But we begin our show by talking to a farmer who has suffered from depression and isn't afraid to talk about it. |
1:24.3 | Bob Worth is a Minnesota corn and soybean farmer. He and his son farm 2,200 acres |
1:29.6 | in Lincoln County, Minnesota. So Bob, before we really dig into the rest of the topic here, |
1:36.3 | let's set up the stage a little bit for us. Tell us more about your farm and how you got started |
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