Overcoming the Mental Health Toll

UF/IFAS Joins Effort to Battle Farmers’ Stress

- SAMANTHA MURRAY

THE STRESS LEVEL in rural communities is off the charts. Farm and ranch closures, land forfeitures, labor issues and more contribute, and according to a 2015 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a full five years before the COVID-19 pandemic hit — rates of suicide in rural communities measured twice that of urban areas.

To address this desperate problem, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is funding four regional farm and ranch stress assistance networks, and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is among the more than 50 partners participating in the effort for the southern region.