For Farmers and Ranchers Grappling With Mental Health, This Fourth-Generation Farmer Offers Help That Works

Civil Eats

Mental health is an ongoing concern in the agricultural industry, where suicide rates are among the highest for any occupation in the United States. Farmers, in particular, die by suicide at a rate up to three times higher than the national average.

“Only recently are farm people becoming more open to seeking mental health assistance,” says Michael Rosmann, a clinical psychologist and fourth-generation farmer, whose latest book, Meditations on Farming: The Agrarian Drive, Stress, and Mental Health is out this month. His previous book, Excellent Joy: Fishing, Farming, Hunting, and Psychology, was recognized by one critic for “the author’s compassion for the mental health of the farmers who are bonded first and foremost to their land.”

Rosmann, 78, is a leading expert on agricultural behavioral health, a specialization he was instrumental in developing to support food producers’ unique needs. Meditations on Farming isn’t the jargony academic text you might expect from an influential scholar.