Who would want to be a farmer? The burden on mental health
We recently discussed the impact of the violence of slaughterhouse employment on kill floor workers, but what about farmers? Should we feel sympathy for the pressures they face? Jackie Norman, a former cow and dairy farmer turned vegan writer, discusses this difficult topic.
While picture books, marketing campaigns and product labels still insist on depicting a wholesome image of farming days of old, most of us know there is nothing fairy-tale whatsoever about a farmed animal's life today. We know the only happy farm animals are those who are simply allowed to 'be', and not be harmed or exploited in any way for their meat, milk, fleece, eggs, skin, feathers or reproductive systems. Yet hard as it is to believe, it is not just the animals who suffer in today's skewed and out-of-control animal agriculture industry.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US showed that suicide rates in farmers have increased by 40 per cent in the last two decades and that farmers are more likely to die by suicide than in many other occupations.
In one year alone, 83 suicides were registered among people working in agricultural and related trades including fishing and forestry in England and Wales. A survey carried out 12 months ago by the Farm Safety Foundation's Mind Your Head found 84 per cent of farmers aged under 40 believe mental health is the biggest hidden problem they face, with yet more studies citing anxiety and depression at the forefront of mental health issues in Irish farmers.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the four most-cited influences on farmers’ mental health in their extensive research are pesticide exposure, financial difficulties, climate variabilities/drought, and poor physical health/past injuries. Based on these testimonials alone, you have to wonder – who'd want to be a farmer?
While there are bad apples in every occupation, if you ask most farmers what made them want to enter the industry in the first place, their answer will almost definitely be the lifestyle, security, pride in feeding their country or freedom of working in the great outdoors. All the wholesome things the marketing aimed at school leavers proudly promised. Inflicting pain and suffering on innocent beings is not something the average person would ever count in their dream job description.
When we read stories or see disturbing footage of farmers brutally beating and abusing defenceless animals in their care with an air of total disconnection, it is impossible to find an ounce of sympathy for those inflicting the abuse, and rightly so. Although there is no excuse, it is important to at least try and understand where this behaviour has come from and why it is so common. In delving deeper, it appears even up-and-coming farmers of the last few generations have been fed a fairy-tale as to the realities of the industry.
“Although there is no excuse, it is important to at least try and understand where this behaviour has come from and why it is so common. In delving deeper, it appears even up-and-coming farmers of the last few generations have been fed a fairy-tale as to the realities of the industry.”
What the farming brochures don't tell you
The following are all examples of stress and other detrimental impacts on farmers' mental health I either witnessed in those around me or experienced myself in almost two decades working on dairy and beef farms. I know many people reading this are not going to want to take any of these on board; much less want to feel any sympathy or consideration and that is fine, you don't have to. Nonetheless, it is the reality and just as the enormous majority of us were not born vegan, none of us were born farmers either.
Before I fell into the industry, I thought like many people that cows just stood in fields and ate grass all day. As for farmers, I didn't even know what they did but it turned out they did an awful lot. I can still hear my very first boss saying it now, 'Pressure Jack! Pressure!' as he paced around, tearing his fingers through his hair. He said it all the time and tried to make light of it on the outside.
On the inside, however, that pressure was unbearable and would regularly boil over and manifest itself in many ways. It could be anything from throwing furniture around when he came home from milking and discovered I didn't remember to put carrots in the Spaghetti Bolognese, to beating his dog with a fencing standard and breaking many a cow's tail. Those are some milder examples and all are inexcusable, but it all came down to that one thing: pressure. The pressure farmers live with each day - particular dairy farmers - neither can nor should be underestimated. What kind of pressure are we talking about?
Milk production
The ultimate goal, the invisible, all-present and all-consuming milestone of which is never lost sight. Annual milk production is the gauge farmers (and their employers) put upon themselves to prove how good they are at their job. Every year has to be better, more than the last. Dairy cows are viewed as, and expected to act like, machines; you turn on the pump and the milk comes out.
This expectation is not only hugely detrimental to the animals, the workers are also caught in that pressure of trying to get a biological being to be a mechanical machine. Ensuring there is enough food to feed these animals all year round and enable them to produce in today's heavily and overstocked operations is another constant pressure.
Underfed and undernourished cows will not produce milk, putting any hope of reaching that season's goal at risk. When you are in charge of many animals and a large area of land, you have to be always thinking and planning months in advance. The pressure of where to get food from, how and where to grow it and afford enough rarely, if ever, goes away.
Money
The goal of farming, like any everyday job, is of course to make money. What many people don't realise though, is the more responsibility a farm worker has, the more debt they are also likely to be in. We're talking astronomical debt here, not your average mortgage.
Cows are expensive to buy, the land is expensive to buy or lease and machinery is costly to buy and maintain. Vet bills are always enormous regardless of whether animals are sick or not, due to the year-round bulk purchases of vitamins, minerals and all the other essential supplements it takes just to keep a dairy cow healthy enough to fall and stay pregnant, come on heat again shortly after giving birth and avoid serious illness and potential death from things such as zinc, magnesium, copper and calcium deficiency.
Mortgages can run into the millions, and you don't even have to be a farm owner to accumulate that kind of debt. In today's climate, however, it is becoming increasingly harder to borrow. Banks are having to look at managing risk more tightly and with animal agriculture becoming more and more volatile, they are having to look harder at how they account for it, which is another potential nightmare for farmers.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US showed that suicide rates in farmers have increased by 40 per cent in the last two decades and that farmers are more likely to die by suicide than in many other occupations.
Peer pressure
There is a saying - tradition is just peer pressure from dead people - and this is never more true than in farming. “Livestock” farming is steeped in tradition, going back hundreds of years in many families, and that forms a crucial part of some people’s identities. Many farms are still handed down from one generation to the next and there is always that pressure to grow the operation, improve, and do the family proud.
Naturally, there is also a huge amount of pressure on workers from those in authority. People think all farmers are the owners of the operation, but this isn't the case at all. The ones who milk cows are rarely the owners. Most owners are usually retired and have managers or share milkers who in turn employ their own staff. Managers are under pressure from the farm owner and regular workers are under pressure from both. The only benefit of being at the bottom of the order is it is a lot easier to leave if it all gets too much.
Farmers even feel pressure from previous workers who farmed the same land or milked the same cows the year (or even years) before their arrival. There is always an expectation to measure up to the one who held your position before you. If you don't manage to achieve the same production – or better – than last year without very good reason, the boss wants to know why and will be on your back.
More pressure yet comes from each other. Among other, similar networks, many areas have monthly 'discussion groups' in which all the local farmers take turns to meet at another's property for half a day. They walk around, look at the pasture, the soil, the cows, question them on production and other practices and basically try and out-achieve one another as to whose cows are producing the most milk, who works the hardest and so on. I attended many of these during my years in the industry and they never once felt like a positive experience.
The Unknown
So much in farming is out of a farmer's control and this has increased considerably in recent years, not least of all due to public awareness of the effect of animal agriculture on the environment. Policy shifts, such as over water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, are an unwelcome challenge for farmers in the way they run their businesses.
The effort, time and money required in order to comply is very stressful when time is already so limited and money is tight. As it is, a farmer can never predict what is going to happen on any given day. While the job is monotonous a lot of the time, you can still have animal health emergencies, the equipment can fail and nothing can be more uncontrollable or have a greater impact than the weather.
Both farmers and their animals are at the total mercy of the weather – droughts, floods, hail, snow and ice – all resulting in loss of land, loss of feed, loss of life. All these things can render a farmer powerless and there is no way of knowing when these times will end or how quickly the land and animals will recover.
Feeling 'indispensable'
I never met a farmer who didn't feel unable to leave the farm. Consequently, many of them don't and live at work 24/7, with no weekends and no time off. Although plenty of employers do allow weekends or holidays, you don't take them because the buck stops with you and you don't trust anyone else to look after the cows, pasture, milking plant or just generally 'do things right' in your absence.
It doesn't help that good, reliable staff are harder than ever to find. Today's young people are not willing to spend years of their lives losing sleep or their social lives. Getting up at 4.00 or 5.00 am for 11 months of the year, and every hour or two over calving season. Living your life by the clock, never truly able to relax. Unsurprisingly it is also hard to find family members who are interested in taking over when the time comes to retire, or who have the capital required to succeed their parents, resulting in a sense of fear for the future and again, that feeling of being indispensable.
Isolation
Farming is an incredibly solitary job. You can go for days, even weeks without seeing another soul. Much of the time you're just alone with your own thoughts. Lack of free time leaves no outlet for stress, no time for other hobbies or interests. I've met many a retired farmer who regretted the lack of quality time he spent with his family, missing out on family holidays, children's school and sports, always an absent parent. As for the stress, farming puts on marriages, it can often feel more like a work contract partnership than a romantic couple. I know of many marriages which have crumbled when a couple finally leave the farm, only to realise they actually have nothing in common now they are no longer a 'team'.
Poor physical health
Physical health or lack of it can also contribute to poor mental health and it is pretty hard to look after yourself when you're working 14 hours a day or more. Despite having such a physical job, most of the farmers I worked within the industry were overweight, due to diets high in animal protein, as well as junk food from not having the time to prepare anything more nutritious.
Alcohol consumption is also high in many farmers – you work hard, you play hard, you find a coping mechanism. Muscular pain, injuries and wounds go with the job and again that feeling of being indispensable and having to 'carry on' results in prolonging of pain and suffering.
Worryingly, an association between pesticide exposure and farmer mental disorders has also been reported in 43 reviewed studies in both developed and developing countries, showcasing an array of severe symptoms.
All these and more result in depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts and uncontrollable anger in farmers. It sounds like an awful existence, and it is. So why don't more of them just leave and do something else?
A brighter, animal-free future for farmers
One obstacle preventing farmers from leaving the industry is fear and lack of self-belief. For many, it is all they know, all they have ever done since leaving school, or even earlier. Consequently, it is all they think they can do. But as any farmer will also tell you, they possess a multitude of valuable skills. They are plumbers, builders, carpenters, engineers, heavy machinery operators, fencers and horticulturalists all rolled into one. There are countless things they are experienced in and can do really well.
Canadian former pig farmer and ex-slaughterhouse worker Justin Reineke experienced first hand the impact of working in an intensive farming operation and painted a thought-provoking comparison for other animal farmers caught up in the cycle. Imagine the pleasure and fulfilment of going to work every day on a farm where you get to grow plants instead of animals. Imagine the peace and reward of tending to vegetable crops, compared with the stench, filth and noise of a barn where you're required to cut the tails and teeth off countless screaming piglets?
New Zealand-based regenerative agriculture consultant Jono Frew has also spoken of the sheer joy and emotional responses he has witnessed in farmers in their 60s who have transitioned into growing crops for the first time and are enjoying a whole new quality of life. It is all out there, and it is all possible.
For advice on how to transition away from animal farming, please download our farmer information booklet from MilkThisIsYourMoment.org.
Almost 30 years have passed since I got yelled at for forgetting the carrots, yet that first boss of mine is still milking cows. While he did take anger management classes, it didn't stop him from shooting that dog he used to beat. Recognising there is a problem and trying to do something about it is commendable, but it takes far more than a handful of self-improvement classes or a government injection to relieve both farmers and animals of the impact of a constantly stressful environment. The only way to break the cycle is to break free of it – and that's something too few farmers realise until they step away from it. You don't believe there is actually life outside of farming – a much, much better one – until you are no longer entrenched in it. It is a heartbreaking revelation to realise you have lost years of your life. Sadly I can also speak from experience there too.
In making the effort to understand the mental state of many farmers and communicate more effectively, we can play an important part in helping more of them to leave their current situation behind. In doing so, not only will they improve the quality of their own lives beyond belief, but they will also play a vital role in securing a better future, for the animals who will no longer be exploited and ultimately each and every one of us.
Jackie Norman is a freelance writer and author of several books, including the cookbook Easy & Delicious: Everyday Vegan, released in 2020. Jackie is a member of non-profit organisation Vegan FTA, where she works as a writer, researcher and co-host of the series Activist together with husband, Gareth Scurr. Facebook.com/veganfta
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