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to deal with that.” Sometimes, he said he seeks solitude on “a spot onmy farmthat I can go to thatmakes it all right” and offers reassurance “that it’s all worth it.” TheFarmStateofMindwebsite farmsta- teofmind.org. now shares mental health resources for farmers. They include infor- mation on recognizing signs of stress, in- sightsonhowtostart conversations, along with other online training. Thesite,affiliatedwiththeAmericanFarm Bureau Federation, says: “Farm life can be
demanding and stressful...Given these on- going challenges, it’s no surprise thatmore farmers and farmfamilies are experiencing stressandmental healthconcerns.” ManyCaliforniaregions suffer fromlittle to no water this year. Stretching a limited supply of water is an ongoing challenge for farmers in the federal Klamath Project. Irrigators saywater inUpperKlamathLake is unavailable in part due to a biological opinion for protected fish species. “That those in control are keeping wa-
ter from you that would help you sustain your livelihood is especially frustrating,” DuVal said. “The water is in the lake and they clearly won’t let us have it so that we can grow crops to feed the world and pay our bills.” In late July, when farmers were left to figure out how to proceed without water, DuVal said, “We were feeling pretty hope- less as far as the future.” She added, “You had to bring yourself back to: Let’s look at right now and the things that we can be grateful for today that are going to carry us through.We are tough people, but we for- get that we can’t carry it all.” Farmers affectedbydrought inSonoma County, which has had several major fires, had to haul domestic water to meet theneeds of their cattle. Recently, Jennifer Beretta of Beretta Family Organic Dairy near Santa Rosa said fire on state land came close to burning the family’s dairy barn, but was promptly extinguished. “The amount of phone calls I got that day frompeople asking, ‘Canwe get there with awater truck and canwe help you?’ It is sohuge tohave the ag communitywhen youare going through something like that,” Berettasaid. Beretta also said the family started sell- ing cows late last year, about 45 head. “There’s an emotional connection to your animals and you don’t want to ever sell ananimal thatdoesn’tneedtobesold,” said Beretta, president of the Sonoma County FarmBureau. “I don’t even know if we can find feed. My poor dad is con- stantly asking me, ‘Howmuch longer are we going to do this if we can’t find hay, if we run out of silage and if we don’t have rainnext year?’” Beretta added, “There are real conver- sations happening that you don’t want to have, but they’re realisticand they’re scary and they’re sad.” By raising awareness of farmer men- tal health, Johansson said, Farm Bureau hopes to make a difference by talking about and losing the stigma associated with mental health and also provide re- sources and training. “We’re talkingmoreopenly thanweever haveabout farmermental health. The first step in reallymaking a difference in fixing a problem is talking about it and drawing attention to it,” Johansson said. “At some point, everyone feels frustration or may- be hopelessness, but you don’t have to go through this alone.” Last year, anAFBF survey of farmers re- vealed that the pandemic had impacted farmermental health. “Nobodywants to talkabout it,” saidRay Atkinson, AFBF communications direc- tor. “Nobody wants to acknowledge it, so that 91% of farmers surveyed saidmental health is important to them. That points to that they arewilling to openup and talk to somebody. “Farmersareself-reliant and, asawhole, don’t need to ask somebody else for help,” he added. “Those are great qualities for being a farmer, but they’re bad qualities for being able to ask somebody for help.” (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
FarmBureauPresident JamieJohansson said, “Therehasbeenaconcertedeffort by Farm Bureau to consider our members’ healthbecausewhatwe’veexperienced in the last three years has brought a tremen- dousamount of uncertaintyanda tremen- dous amount of almost hopelessness.” An Oroville olive grower and produc- er, Johansson has faced evacuations due to wildfires. He said the stress of farmers “plays on the whole family,so you have
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