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Finding mental health help in ag

Oct 11, 2018

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On #WorldMentalHealthDay, industry members showed support for one another

Lauren Arva

Staff Writer

Farms.com

Agriculture generated a lot of buzz on social media with Wednesday’s #WorldMentalHealthDay hashtag.

The ag community took to Twitter to express their appreciation for World Mental Health Day. Individuals shared reminders that resources are available for anyone who is struggling and that they are not alone in their fight.

Mental health awareness and support is of huge importance in the ag community, Kim Jo Bliss, a farmer from Rainy River district, told Farms.com today.

“I think everyone is having a very challenging year this year,” she said. “The weather has been (so) extreme for so many.”

While farming is a rewarding career, it also can be difficult, Bliss explained.

“So much revolves around the weather which is totally uncontrollable … often, when you’re challenged, you feel like you’re the only one.”

Community members have increasingly turned to Twitter to share their mental health experiences with one another and Bliss has taken notice.

“I think Twitter has been a really good platform for farmers. … When you’re having troubles on a farm, you always seem to feel like you’re not doing a good enough job and that you’re the only one that’s dealing with it. I personally had a miserable day yesterday, but sometimes you just have to sit down and realize that it’s not just you.”

Initiatives like the Do More Ag Foundation are a step in the right direction, she said.

“The first step is learning to reach out and not being ashamed to reach out. … Sometimes, half the battle is talking to someone in a similar situation” as you.

While mental health support in the ag community has become more available over the past few years, Bliss says farmers need more options.

“There are resources available, but I feel like a lot of the (organizations) are fairly understaffed, and it might be a challenge to get in to see somebody quickly.”

Recognizing the need for conversation about mental health in the industry is definite progress, Bliss added.

“Farmers are starting to recognize their challenges and talk about them, which is a big step in the right direction.”

Organizations such as the Do More Ag Foundation, the Grain Growers of Canada and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture also showed their support for industry members via Twitter.

shotbydave/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”