Farming not as dismal as NFU report portrays

“Across Canada, farmers are experiencing declining mental health,” says a report just released by the National Farmers Union. The report claims there’s a farmer mental health crisis in this country and all the things the NFU thinks are wrong in agriculture need to be fixed so that farmers no longer have too much stress.

The report employs a selective use of statistics. The only farmers interviewed were NFU members and the NFU’s left wing, anti-business bias drips from every paragraph of the 47-page document. Trade is bad. Big is bad. The food system needs to be local and sustainable.

I complain about the weather and the cost of inputs along with everyone else. It’s what we do as farmers when we gather to visit. But in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some often-overlooked positives.

What other group in society enjoys as much mental health advocacy as farmers? It’s a noble cause so it has attracted lots of expertise and funding. I don’t hear anything about a special stress line for restaurant owners or other small business entrepreneurs, although I’m sure many of them face major difficulties.

Saskatchewan’s Farm Stress Line dates back to the 80s, when interest rates were atrocious and thousands of farmers were losing land to lending institutions. That was truly a time of mental health crisis. By comparison, conditions today are a cakewalk.

What other business sector has the array of business risk programing available within agriculture? Sure, AgriStability is considered a joke by a lot of producers and sectors such as beef certainly need more applicable programs, but look at the support coming from crop insurance.

Without crop insurance the past several years, there would be a multitude of producers in financial distress in the dry regions of Saskatchewan and Alberta. I’ve seen grain producers complain about the bit of extra support cattle producers may receive from AgriRecovery and some of these same grain producers will be cashing million-dollar cheques from crop insurance.

Then there’s AgriInvest which provides a bit of money each year to producers whether they need it or not. And who else gets interest free cash advances of up to $350,000?

You certainly don’t have to look far to see farmers struggling financially. Smaller farmers, younger farmers and farmers who took on too much debt or made some bad decisions can have a tough time. It’s also been a lot harder to be profitable in the cow-calf business than as a grain farmer.

Overall, however, farming has never been more profitable. One of the results has been rapidly escalating land prices. Investment companies take a lot of blame for this, but mainly it is farmers bidding up other farmers, because land has become such a good investment. The rising price of land creates some issues, but it’s a heck of a lot better than falling land values.

Yes, farming is stressful and there’s lots to complain about, but it’s also exhilarating. Most farmers can’t imagine doing anything else.

As farmers, we may have our problems, but they seem rather minor compared to the growing number of homeless people in our cities. More drug addiction, more use of food banks, more violence and social unrest. Many are people with complex needs who are falling through the cracks of our social safety nets.

I’ll take the stress of farming anytime rather than the growing problems in our urban areas. We have a lot to be thankful for.