Farmers are the unhappiest of the self-employed

Posted on Aug 5th 2007 8:05PM by Rigel Celeste

As a general rule, self-employment is supposed to be good for you, but for some reason farmers aren't getting the benefit. In a new report published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, farmers come out scoring low on every measure of health and quality of life.

This news strikes me as really sad because it's such a natural and honest way to make a living, and we need farmers! But if it's such an unpleasant way of life then why will anyone choose it in the future? And unfortunately the article doesn't give much in the way of what to do, other than suggesting farmers need more emotional and social support.

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Tags: farm, farmer, farming, happiness, happy, quality of life, QualityOfLife, unhappy

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Andy C 8-07-2007 @ 8:32PM

The state of farming is sad. Do you know the tale? The government pushes welfare to them for growing a crop no one but the conglomerates can use.

Overall an industrialized farm is a sad place.. that is unless you know awesome farmers who are returning to a diversifed farm and practicing good farming practices. In our area we celebrate the farmers and the markets and it's getting stronger. Some of the best restaurants in the area support >100 miles regional foods.

Farmers are people and the US has a really messed up agriculture system. Read up on it.

While your at it join Slow Foods. :)

-a

Andy 8-07-2007 @ 8:33PM

With the chefs I meant less than (

Kate 8-09-2007 @ 4:32PM

I'm a farm girl from a four generation farm family. I can honestly say that the government over subsidises the farming community as a whole. We have farmers who receive up to a million dollars a year from the government. The farming industy has lobbiest who milk our government for all the subsidies that can get. Most farms are mismanaged and expect the government to bail them out, which we do. I say let the farmers compete as all businesses must compete in a competitive market. If they can't survive, they shouldn't be farming. Last year farmers in our area were given $80,000 center pivot machines, because the money was available. One farmer put it on unfarmable ground, because he wanted the FREE machine. Not surprising, the farmer is on the board of the state Farming Committee. Farm subsidies are a HUGE waste of tax payers money.

Rebecca 8-09-2007 @ 2:57PM

With government programs offering money to anyone who has land, even if they don't farm it, it's not hard to see those who work hard to make their land work best for them become disillusioned. And under that gov't program, many farmers who need that extra income don't qualify, for whatever technical reason, another reason to be unhappy about being a farmer.

Dan Paris 8-09-2007 @ 3:39PM

I'm a small MI farmer, and am VERY happy since I decided to become diversified, natural, and sustainable, and decided to refuse government benefits. If you want to help other farmers get off the dole that only benefits food conglomerates and wealthy landowners, continues our dependance on foreign oil, ruins our environment, and gives us disease causing industrial food: vote against any political candidate that supports the current Farm Bill (now heading for senate approval), and try to buy from local farmers. Do not support corn ethanol production, which requires more fossil fuel to produce than the energy it provides. The USDA is not our friend!

LambLion58 8-09-2007 @ 4:08PM

It is always fun to drive through places like Wisconsin where you see back to back neighboring farms all over the place. At the same time I can understand why farmers are so unhappy. I don't think that there is any time in America's history then right now that it is hardest to be a farmer. Especially having to contend with big agra farming all over the place. These places are contaminating the soil by making hybrid fruits and vegetables that aren't good for you and were never meant to be eaten. Organic farms are the best. These farmers grow fruits and veggies the way they were meant to be grown and are much better for you and safer to eat as a whole.

Roseb44170 8-09-2007 @ 4:53PM

As someone that does grant research I have to tell you that not all government grant programs geared towards farmers are bad.

I mention a lot of grant-related programs on my grants page at;

http://members.aol.com/Roseb441702/grants.htm

I also know that the article is a general study. As you can see from someone who already posted he is a farmer and he is very happy with being a farmer.

I know that it can be very hard running a farm but I also know that there are farmers out there who run their farms successfully and are happy doing it.

It's a sad thing to say but if you're not happy at what you are doing then either you're not doing it right or you should be doing something else.

Where there is a will there is a way!

Scifanjan7 8-09-2007 @ 4:41PM

I am a farm wife. Farmers are so unhappy because most of the time we are forced to know about many different jobs and get paid so little for them. We have to be experts in: machinists, veterinary, stock markets, fertilizers, nutritionists, breeding, crop rotation, etc. and that's just off the top of my head. The hours suck, and half the time you don't have the right tools or can't afford the right tools to get the job done. It is very frustrating. Still, I think most farmers will want to keep their jobs. It can be VERY discouraging a lot of the time....

Lori 8-09-2007 @ 5:16PM

Since most farms in the U.S. are conventional farms (treated with pesticides), maybe farmers report being unhappy because of their exposure to pesticide. Is depression a side-effect of breathing those toxic chemicals?

looksbooks54 8-09-2007 @ 5:42PM

Most of the farmers at my farmers' market appear to be pretty happy - I know it's hard work but I think organic is the only way to make a profit these days.
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Gene Hurt 8-09-2007 @ 6:19PM

If the government would quick stealing from the AMERICAN PEOPLE, I have a perfect soultion to fix this problem. Quit givihg other countries cash that we never will get back. And we could maybe feed most of the whole world by Putting farmers to work by the thousands and then they git a fair market vaule on their products. Then GOD would see this country feeding others and then if they don't help theirselves say sorry. Help tourselves.

Alan K 8-09-2007 @ 7:26PM

The deck is stacked against the self employed and against the farmers most of all. Start with the 'self employment tax' that never ends, difficulty getting health insurance, government interference in the farming business that rewards the mega agribusiness and isolated the small farmer. This is a mess. Get government OUT of the business and allow individual producers to suceed on their own initiative. There is no room for government in agribusiness andf government subsidies are a disaster.

J.B. 8-09-2007 @ 7:37PM

whithout them we are ALL doomed.
let's support this hardworking people. The american Goverment has a lot to do with their unhappiness
they pay them sqad for their grown goods.
Eventualy big bussiness is going to run it all and than watch out how we will pay.

Gloria 8-09-2007 @ 9:09PM

If you want to see happy farmers take a look at the Amish and their way of life. They are some of the happiest people on earth, and real farmers, the way
farming was meant to be.

Penny 8-10-2007 @ 1:29AM

Didn't anyone click on the link to read about the referenced study? It was research done in FINLAND and farmers composed only 3.5% of the people surveyed. Statistically too small of a sampling to draw conclusions. There were no facts to support the implication that American farmers are unhappy in general or more unhappy than any other group of workers. My observation is that most farmers work hard - especially those up at 5am milking - but very few would trade places with a commuter sitting in traffic on the way to an office job.
PPW

Will 8-10-2007 @ 8:41AM

I grew up on a farm, have a small NM farm now and I am surrounded by small farms.

If we want to improve the quality of everyone's life get the social engineers and the government out of our lives. The only really happy farmes and ranchers I know are organic since we simply do not try to compete with conagra and have a niche market. I know that for those with degrees in agriculture and economics bigger is better but it really isn't.

Also, never look in another mans field and compare your joy - you know the old saying, the grass always looks greener onthe other side, well I lived on the other side for quite a few years, it only looks greeen because it is growing over the septic tank and the taste is terrible.

joanne 8-10-2007 @ 9:03AM

Gloria, you are ignorant of the Amish lifestyle which is rife with child and women abuse. Learn more about this lifestyle and LIFE in general before you make such ridiculous assumptions.

Anyone who read the article will see this was based on a study of 5,000 people in Finland of which 3.5 percent were farmers. That's hardly comparable to farmers in the US, UK or anywhere else. It's a small, narrow study that is meaningless anywhere but Finland.

jim 8-14-2007 @ 4:18PM

As another comment said, THIS STUDY IS A SMALL STUDY DONE IN FINLAND!!! I think this illustrates the tendency of so many to make sweeping conclusions and comments based on inadequate information and assessment of the data. Also, the AOL headline was very misleading in not mentioning this very important fact. No 'scientific' study, survey, or poll can be relied upon without analysis of the study mechanism, sample size, etc.
Makes you wonder how Americans assess political choices?