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Sociology of Agriculture and Food (SAFRIG)

Farmers’ adaptation strategies when facing financial and mental challenges Florence Becot*, Florence Becot, Sarah Ruszkowski, Akanimo Udeokong, Andrea Bjornestad, Carrie Henning-Smith,

Farmers are often portrayed as self-reliant individuals who do not want to seek help when facing challenges, especially when it comes to their mental health. While well-intended, such framing is overly simplistic, and recent evidence suggests that it may be harmful. To broaden our understanding of when farmers seek help and how, we put in dialogue two bodies of literature, from different traditions, that provide complementary insights: 1) farmer help-seeking strategies and 2) farm persistence. We draw on data from interviews with 55 farmers in three U.S. Midwest states. We used a semi-structured guide informed by the Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Use Services and the literature. We coded our data using an iterative approach with inductive and deductive codes, and our analysis is based on a thematic analysis. Our preliminary findings indicate that many research participants had navigated mental health and financial challenges within their families and/or communities. Critical in the adoption of these adaptation strategies was the households’ ability to leverage internal and external resources while adjusting to the prevailing conditions. Still, many expressed concerns around seeking help from their local community due to the competitive nature of securing land and labor and the fear that revealing vulnerability would threaten their livelihoods. Taken together, our findings so far provide a counterpoint to the prevailing framing of the farmer help-seeking strategy literature, as we found that seeking help was a common occurrence. Furthermore, and in line with the farm persistence literature, our findings point to the primacy of actions taken to address financial challenges to maintain the farm operation. Lastly, our findings illustrate how strategies to support mental health and finances are interlinked but can also conflict with one another.