Michael Rosmann, also a clinical psychologist, drew on 50 years of counseling farmers to write ‘Meditations on Farming.’
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Michael Rosmann, also a clinical psychologist, drew on 50 years of counseling farmers to write ‘Meditations on Farming.’
November 1, 2024
(Photo courtesy of Michael R. Rosmann)
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.
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“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.
Instead, it’s an offbeat collection of stories that, at first glance, may seem to have little in common—from reflections on his wife’s garden and his beloved fly-fishing adventures to riveting accounts of losing his toes in a combine and a lawsuit by a former patient that unfolded in a five-week court trial worthy of a Netflix series. Interspersed throughout are essays detailing lessons learned from nearly 50 years of counseling the people he calls his “best teachers”—farmers, ranchers, farm workers, and their families.
Together, the book is a nonlinear narrative of Rosmann’s life, revealing how our everyday actions, even the most mundane ones, prepare us for challenges we might never see coming. At times, the book reads like a spiritual guide, which makes sense given his early journey toward the Catholic priesthood. He changed his path after a friend told him over beers, “You need to be a father in a different sense,” encouraging him to marry, have kids, and become a psychologist.
Rosmann received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Utah and returned to his native Iowa to farm with his family, coincidentally arriving at the dawn of the 1980s Farm Crisis. Farmer suicides doubled during that time, and Rosmann was the first psychologist in the state to develop a response, gathering farmers after church on Sundays to talk openly about their struggles.
Later, he co-founded Agriwellness, a nonprofit whose 14 years of research on agricultural behavioral health informed the national Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, which funds mental health services for agricultural workers.
In an interview with Civil Eats, Rosmann shares the personality traits that motivate people to farm despite its difficulties, the power of faith, and what truly works to save lives.
What is “mental health,” and why do you encourage psychologists working with the agricultural community to use the term “behavioral health” instead?
Mental health consists of behaviors that indicate a maladjustment that could be codified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I would say that behavioral health is the preferred term because there is a negative stigma about the word “mental.” You could use it to insult someone by saying, “Oh, you’re mental.” Try saying, “You’re behavioral.” It just doesn’t work; you can’t use that term in a nonchalant way.
Farm people who need mental health assistance have sometimes, in the past, avoided it because it was viewed as a sign of weakness or because you had to turn yourself over to someone else to become healthy. We doctors needed people to understand that we are in charge of our behaviors.
Behavioral health therapies include a great many approaches that change behavior or are capable of changing behavior—such as talking to an advisor who knows a lot about farming—that can be very supportive. How much we sleep, whether we take vacations or time to restore ourselves daily, eat correctly, take prescribed medication appropriately, talk about a financial situation with family, or pray—these are behaviors we control. We can’t control the weather or farm prices, but we can control our behaviors.
You’ve devoted a whole book chapter to the question: Why do people farm? Why is this an important question to ask in the context of behavioral health?
The psychological traits of successful farmers identified in research across multiple countries all point to a cluster of similar behaviors or characteristics that are central to the agrarian imperative [my theory for why people farm]. One is great tolerance for adversity. That is, farmers don’t give up and will continue to struggle until they don’t have an ounce of energy left or can’t function. Another is that they trust their own judgment and will do what they think is best, even if it overrides what another person might recommend. Another is that successful farmers take risks. Another is that they want to do it by themselves, and this reliance on their own judgment is very important to their self-esteem.
Now, these behavioral styles also have their downsides. The first one, to persevere in the face of overwhelming distress, means that sometimes farmers will push themselves into an anxiety disorder, which eventually turns into depression, and the depression can turn into suicide. The second factor—that they rely on their own judgment—often gets them into trouble because they won’t seek help, and it’s pretty clear now that having a team of people to solve a problem together is very beneficial. The third one, high risk-taking, easily can be seen as having its negative side because farmers will push the limits and sometimes make risky decisions that don’t pan out. Healthy farmers are able to make better decisions.
In the book, you emphasize that financial stress and the prospect of losing land are the top contributors to mental health challenges for farmers. What is the farmer’s responsibility, and what is the responsibility of their community and government?
“We need a different type of governmental involvement, and that is to help create the foundations for the services that take care of the mental health of farmers.”
We all need to understand that agriculture is not an easy way of life and is more than a business. If we think of food production only as a business, then it becomes selfish, and it’s all about making money that doesn’t have survival value. But if we think about producing food as a way of life for the purpose of sustaining our family, our communities, and people around the world, then [eaters] understand that they are stakeholders in the well-being of farmers.
During the Trump administration, when tariffs were imposed on China and it retaliated by reducing imports of American grain and pork, nearly all of the supplemental aid given to farmers went to larger corporate farms rather than those who farm as a way of life.
We need a different type of governmental involvement, and that is to help create the foundations for the services that take care of the mental health of farmers. The 2018 Farm Bill had that in it, and it’s called the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network. For the first time, this program allocated funds ($10 million annually) to four land grant universities, some of which are attached to consortiums, around the U.S. that are required to help pass funds to others in their state and region to set up farm crisis services such as hotlines and helplines, train counselors who understand agriculture, make services available without incurring insurance billing, and conduct community education. We have seen a considerable shift in the way farmers view mental health since the Network came out.
Can you share any success stories or case studies that illustrate the positive impact of stress management for farmers?
We’ve seen the rate of suicide decrease in areas where they have the best practices installed that I talked about [in the book] relating to the Network. We are seeing farmers now reach out for behavioral health assistance a whole lot more than they did in the past. They are not as afraid of seeking counseling, medications, or substance abuse treatment. We see them progressing toward more efficient, understanding, better relationships with their workers and family members—and even with their animals, if they raise animals.
What are some key behavioral health challenges you’ve noticed among farmers?
We know that higher rates of anxiety disorders and depressive disorders occur in farm people. We also know that most farmers carry a proclivity toward attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We used to think that was some negative mental health problem, but it needs to be viewed in a different light. ADHD has its benefits.
The original research [conducted by anthropologist Dan Eisenberg] on Kenyan farmers in Africa showed that the most skilled and successful cattle, sheep, and goat herders didn’t require a lot of sleep. They were keen observers of opportunities for their animals to graze or secure water. They took more risks, sometimes sleeping or herding their animals close to terrain where predators were known to come after the livestock. And they developed some methods to drive lions away. All of the things I’ve said are beneficial, but they can get us into trouble if we don’t know how to use them.
At one time, my own ADHD got the better of me. I didn’t properly manage it and I lost some toes [in a combine]. I realized that I had to be more careful for the sake of my family. I realized that I was trying too hard to be successful. What was success? Maybe political power, recognition, things that many people valued and which I valued, but these urges were more about me than taking care of others and myself properly.
In the book, you write about your relationship with God and how faith got you through a series of challenges. How has your faith influenced your work with farmers?
It has influenced me in many ways. When I feel desperate to come up with a solution for somebody who is highly suicidal, I have to know what to say. Of course, I’ve had training in psychology and 50 years or so of experience, but I don’t know everything.
I say to my concept of a higher being, “God help me with this. What can I do?” That quick meditation sometimes allows me the freedom to think clearly, and sometimes things come to me that I can’t understand how they came. They just happen, and they’ve happened to me repeatedly. I know there’s a higher force governing me. If I get to being too concerned about Mike and not adequately concerned about everybody else, I get knocked off my horse. And if I don’t get knocked off my horse for quite a while, when it happens, it happens hard. But I think God is trying to teach me a lesson and to say, “Hey, what’s more important, you or others?”
Taking care of others is my way of achieving meaning, fulfillment and happiness. But it’s also my way of helping others be happier and healthier emotionally so they can go about their farming properly.
Do you encourage your own clients to meditate?
Yes, I encourage clients to meditate in their own way. It is their responsibility to establish openness to input from all sources around us and not just depend on the words of one or two people. We need to understand the dignity of farming as one of the highest callings anybody can have, and I think that does involve spiritual reliance on a higher source. We all need a core set of beliefs that get us through the tough times, and it’s easier to have that set of core beliefs when we’re deeply spiritual. Not religious, but spiritual.
Lots of media reporting on farmer mental health focuses on suicide. Are we missing something by focusing on suicide alone? Do you think our focus should be elsewhere?
Yes, I do. Our focus now needs to be on the establishment of helpful services, training farmers in stress management, making behavioral healthcare affordable and accessible when needed, and building teams that help distressed farmers resolve their problems.
We now have courses called agricultural medicine, which includes a section on managing behavioral health. We also have four centers for studying agricultural behavioral health that we didn’t have six years ago. We’ve come a ways, and I think the progress is partly due to the media getting the information out there on TV, in farm newspapers and magazines, and even in brochures in the farm service agencies.
We’ve seen a change in sentiment about mental health. Now, the focus needs to be on the progress that’s been made—and making it equally available to everyone in agriculture, not just the owners and operators, but also workers, people who want to get into agriculture, farmers who are not running large operations, and people of different economic and racial strata. All this [progress] needs to be equitably applied.
What messages do you hope readers take away from your book?
Golly, I hope they understand the rigors of agriculture better in terms of how it impacts behavioral and mental well-being. I hope they see agricultural production as a highly beneficial and sought-after way of life, not just an occupation or a business. I hope they see they need to be stewards of the land and all the resources needed rather than exploiters. I hope, above all, that they see reading the book as a spiritual journey that makes them better people who care about others.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Thank you for your reporting.