‘Farmers are on the brink — is this their reward after toiling for our food?’

Mental health has never been as important an issue when it comes to farmers, who are being rewarded for their incredibly hard work with the toughest challenges they’ve faced in years.

Be this in the form of the inheritance tax announcement or deaths in the workplace, these trials have taken their toll. Award-winning charity the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies) ran its eighth annual Mind Your Head campaign from February 10 to 14.

Mind Your Head is one week of the year when the farming community comes together to raise awareness of the challenges that farmers face every day to put food on our plates. It addresses a sensitive subject, one that many in the industry still don’t feel comfortable talking about – poor mental health.

Why is this important? Well, farming is not your usual 9-to-5 job. Unlike the majority of workers, farmers don’t have the privilege of taking weekends and Bank Holidays off. Further still, industry research shows few farmers take sick leave and the majority certainly don’t retire at 65.

In addition to the long hours, farming also has the poorest safety record of any occupation in the UK. With 462,000 working in the industry, it accounts for a mere 1% of the working population, yet shockingly farming is responsible for a 17% of deaths that happen in the workplace – this cannot continue.

Farmers face many stresses, they work for long periods of time on their own, at the mercy of the weather, often living and working in the same place so there is no escape. They can have financial issues and the industry itself and the market for UK goods is constantly changing. There are so many things that are out of their control, it’s easy to see how someone can become stressed, anxious or worse.

The pressures on farmers today are unlike anything we’ve seen before. Farming has always been one of the most demanding industries, but the added strain of those long hours, rural isolation and financial insecurity is putting farmers at risk – both physically and mentally.

We launched the Mind Your Head campaign back in 2018 when farmers lost EU subsidies in light of the Brexit vote. More than eight years later, we are starting to see more openness around mental health, which was once seen as a taboo subject to talk about in farming circles.

We’re enormously proud of the progress made to date and we’re already seeing more farmers willing to talk openly about their struggles.

But the industry is facing huge challenges – rising production costs, pressure from cheaper imported products, reduced post-Brexit subsidies, extreme weather events and the proposed policy changes – which is creating real concerns for farming families and farming communities.

From the BSE outbreak of the 80s, to Foot & Mouth in 2001 to Brexit in 2018, farming in the UK has weathered many crises over the years however this emerging mental health epidemic could prove to be the most devastating.

But farmers are resilient – they know there are good days and not so good days, and it is difficult not to love this industry when a newborn animal takes its first steps, when the sun is rising over the fields, or when the crop you planted starts appearing through the soil.

So, even if you don’t say grace or are religious, when you sit down to eat your Sunday dinner or Full English this weekend, spare a thought for the hands that toiled to produce your food and appreciate the time, energy, and effort that was invested in bringing the food from farm to table and what would happen if this is put at risk.

Because this is farming. The highs, the lows and everything in between. It can be tough, but it’s also rewarding. Farmers embrace every day knowing that tomorrow brings a fresh start. The sun will rise… and we are the lucky ones who get to see it shine.