By Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
Mental health in agriculture remains a significant concern as farmers experience increasing pressure, isolation, and financial uncertainty.
“All of the risk of producing food is put on the farmers, while all of the protection and profits go to large corporations. It makes the hard work feel futile some days…” said a respondent to a research survey conducted by Jones-Bitton and colleagues. (Jones-Bitton, A., Best, C., Mactavish, J., Fleming, S., & Hoy, S., 2019a, “Stress, anxiety, depression, and resilience in Canadian farmers,”)
Spring 2026 is no different. The fields in the northeast of the province remain snow-covered, while in west-central they are bare and lacking moisture. The lack of oil movement through the Strait of Hormuz has caused fuel prices to continue ratcheting up, and there is no option for farmers but to pay the price, because without fuel, no crop gets planted.
Farming can be one of the most stressful professios in Canada, according to Statistics Canada, with farmers experiencing higher-than-average rates of depression and anxiety.
Mental health, or lack thereof, has become a major topic in agricultural communities around the world. There is still a strong stigma attached to conversations around mental health, and an attitude that to admit you need help is a shameful thing. Gerry Friesen, aka The Recovering Farmer, specializes in stress and conflict management, drawing on his farming experience and personal journey with anxiety and depression.
The culture of farming, Friesen says, has long been one of resilience, but resilience doesn’t mean suffering in silence. There’s an unspoken expectation in agriculture to work until the job is done, no matter the toll it takes. He believes people need to start having open conversations about mental health in farm communities. Checking in on neighbours, employees, and family members is just as important as checking the oil in our tractors. A simple, ‘How are you really doing?’ can make a world of difference.
A 2023 report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives examined the mental health crisis facing the farming community. Field Notes: Looking upstream at the farmer mental health crisis in Canada by Zsofia Mendly-Zambo highlighted the many facets of the stress farming populations face. The unpredictability of weather, including extreme weather, is noted as one of the top stressors faced by Canadian producers. Many small and new farms, often operations with a diverse mix of crops and livestock or those producing fruits and vegetables, also continue to struggle, facing multiple financial challenges: exorbitant land prices, burdensome debt, volatile prices, difficulty accessing markets, labour shortages, and cash flow crises.
Too often, Mendly-Zambo noted, financial and economic uncertainty, as well as extreme weather, are treated as just another ‘fact of farming’ and not seen as something that has been created and worsened by both active policies and policy inaction at all levels of government.
As of 2023, only Ontario, PEI, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan had dedicated mental health help for farmers, leaving the majority of Canadian farmers without access to emergency help appropriate to their needs.
Merle Massie, executive director of DoMoreAg, said during a recent presentation about mental health in agriculture, that the online, anonymous service, AgTalk, can help those who do not have family or community members they can talk comfortably with about heavy topics. AgTalk is powered by Togetherall, a peer-to-peer space, and available to anyone in Canada associated with agriculture. It is text-based on a computer or a phone and even offers a way for people to draw how they feel. Farmers can read what other farmers are facing and can help them feel less alone. And they only share their story, their struggles, if they want to.
“When you sign up, they give you a whole new name. …They do have your actual phone number and know where you live. This is important, just in case they need to send 911 to you.” However, that, she said, would only be activated in a critical situation.
As Friesen shares, “Farmers deal with countless factors outside of their control—commodity prices, weather, equipment failures, and market uncertainty. This constant unpredictability wreaks havoc on our minds, leaving us feeling powerless.”
Local agriculture crisis lines, resources and websites across Canada can be found at www.domore.ag