Merle Massie, executive director of DoMoreAg, posed that question during a recent presentation about mental health in agriculture.

Lots of people strike up conversations with strangers during plane rides or trips, she said, and those strangers can become safe places to share.

That’s what AgTalk is — an anonymous and safe space for people 16 and older to receive peer support. It’s one of several platforms DoMoreAg provides as it continues to focus on awareness and action in the industry.

WHY IT MATTERS: Mental health in agriculture continues to be a concern as farmers face more pressure, isolation and financial uncertainty.

What is AgTalk?

AgTalk is powered by Togetherall, a peer-to-peer space, and available to anyone in Canada associated with agriculture.

Massie said the online, anonymous service can help those who don’t have family or community members they can talk comfortably with about some heavy topics.

“When you sign up, they give you a whole new name,” she said recently at Canada’s Farm Show in Regina.

“They do have your actual phone number and know where you live. This is important, just in case they need to send 911 to you.”

However, she said this would only be activated in a critical situation.

AgTalk is more like quiet support, she said. It’s text-based on a computer or a phone and even offers a way for people to draw how they feel.

“You can read what other people are facing,” Massie said.

“It helps you feel less alone, and you can share your story only if you want to.”

She said there is a lot of power in being a “regular person” sharing and listening to others.

Togetherall has other communities, such as those for first responders or those going through divorce.

There is a course available as well as curated articles, self-assessment and goal trackers.

Who is using AgTalk?

Massie shared statistics from a 2025 report that showed 73 per cent of people who joined AgTalk are not engaged in formal mental health support, meaning AgTalk is the only one.

“Thirty-eight per cent of them report past thoughts of suicide or self-harm. These people are not feeling well,” she said.

“Eighty per cent reported their mental health as poor or very poor, and 42 per cent said that they shared something on Togetherall that they’ve never shared with anyone else.”

The statistics show people of all ages have joined.

Support outside business hours

Most of the activity on AgTalk, 88 per cent, occurs outside of normal business hours, and one-third of that activity is after midnight.

AgTalk is available 24/7, and it’s backed by clinicians, although Massie said they are not offering therapy on the site.

In 2025, the site saw six escalations in which the Wall Guides, the professionals who monitor the site, had to step in. All were successful, including one case that was taken outside the site for help.

Be a light for others

Massie encouraged people to shine a light on mental health. They can be porch lights, or those who are safe spaces for coffee and conversation, or flashlights, the type that can find those who are pulling away in their mental health struggles, or floodlights, shining widely to raise awareness.

The post Anonymous peer support platform gives farmers a safe space to talk appeared first on Farmtario.

Practical solutions and community support can help farmers manage stress, mental health advocates say.

Why it matters: Farming can be one of the most stressful professions in Canada, with farmers experiencing higher-than-average rates of depression and anxiety.

As spring begins, farmers are thinking about what to plant and which seeds and crop protection products to use. Meanwhile, weather, markets and geopolitics are out of their control.

“Think about the farmers across the country who experienced droughts, who experienced flooding, who experienced tariffs,” said Chad Bouma, a social worker practicing in the rural area around Drayton, Ont.

“All those things probably have been going through their mind since the harvest time.”

Bouma said he’s seen the stress and anxiety lead to decision paralysis.

“Those farmers have real difficulty even kind of making those decisions, because they don’t want to make the wrong decision, because maybe the decision they made last year was the wrong decision.

Stress clouds the judgement ‘window’

Stress can often cloud a person’s judgement and decision-making abilities said Megan Burnside-Poitras, communications advisor with Agricultural Wellness Ontario. Burnside-Poitras spoke at the Eastern Ontario Crops Conference earlier this year.

In her presentation, she compared stress and judgement to a window.

“I look out my office window in the afternoon. I’m looking out into the farm, into an orchard. It’s a beautiful window to look at.”

“Most days, you know, that window is pretty huge, a big picture window, and it’s very clear, and I can see how beautiful it is out,” she said. “But occasionally, it’s harder to see out that window.”

In times of higher stress, it is common to experience ‘hyperarousal,’ an agitated state with higher energy, or ‘hypoarousal,’ a state of shutting down. Both these situations can cloud that window.

“It’s a whole lot harder to see that same beautiful visual that’s on the other side of it, even though it’s still there, because things are getting cloudy because of that stress.”

Outside factors like weather, tariffs, market prices and public perception can “draw the blinds” on the window, obscuring the view.

How farmers can manage stress

Bouma said the role of a social worker is to give farmers the tools to see their situation clearly and understand when they need support.

“Some farmers experiencing anxiety, they don’t know that it’s anxiety,” he said. “They might just think it’s stress that they can’t get over, and then they beat themselves up.”

Recognition and awareness-building are critical.

“A lot of the time we don’t actually know that there’s something wrong until something catastrophic has happened, or there’s a crisis,” Bouma said.

One of the most important things in high-stress times is to focus on prevention and mitigation measures, Burnside-Poitras said. This means identifying stress triggers, how they can be mitigated and focusing on what can be controlled. This could be as simple as staying rested, hydrated and well-fed.

Community a mental health advantage

When it comes to mental health, the advantage in agricultural communities is just that: community.

Burnside-Poitras cited a study from Stanford University which concludes “Social ties in general are going to lead to lower stress, anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem, greater empathy, increased trust and cooperation and enhanced well-being altogether” as well as a 50 per cent chance of a longer life.

“The community perspective for mental health and farming is the most important piece of this,” Bouma said. “I cannot emphasize that any stronger.”

“When we isolate (mental health) or we individualize it, then it’s not going to go very far, is it?”

“There’s a lot of resilience already built into farming,” he said. Farmers have often seen previous generations go through similar seasons.

Keeping the community connection can mean checking in on neighbours or getting involved with local community groups.

The rhythm of the seasons can also provide critical reflection time. Bouma said some farmers will do this on their own, while others may draw on peer groups.

“They are looking for practical solutions,” he said. “Hoping for the best is all well and good, but they also need to have pen to paper for that too.”

The post How farmers can manage stress, anxiety during spring seeding appeared first on Farmtario.

Applications for the foundation’s 2026 Community Fund for Mental Health opened on March 30.

In 2026, the fund will provide rural and agricultural communities with access to Talk, Act, Listen, which is Do More Ag’s flagship mental health literacy workshop.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canadian farmers face persistent stressors that take a toll on their mental health.

Through this workshop, participants can build confidence in starting informed conversations about mental health, develop practical support skills and strengthen local networks to help individuals and families thrive.

The program is designed to recognize the unique stresses in agricultural life.

In 2025, the community fund received applications from nearly 80 communities across 11 provinces and territories with 42 workshops delivered across seven provinces.

Non-profit community groups and organizations based in rural and agricultural regions can learn more at Do More Ag Community Fund.

The 2026 application period closes April 30.

The post Do More Ag to fund rural groups’ mental health workshops appeared first on Farmtario.

The survey invites farmers and ranchers across all commodities and regions in Canada to share their experiences with stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, resilience, and coping mechanisms. It’s conducted in partnership with the University of Guelph.

“Strong participation helps ensure that future research, programs, and policy decisions are informed by the real experiences of farmers and ranchers,” the centre said in a news release.

WHY IT MATTERS: The survey will improve understanding of the current state of mental health in agriculture and build on the previous national surveys from 2016 and 2021.

In 2021, the showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had worsened existing issues of high stress, anxiety, and burnout among farmers and ranchers, with women reporting poorer mental health than men across all measures except alcohol use.

“Both women and men who farm scored worse than the general population, but the women scored even worse,” said Briana Hagen, the centre’s and lead scientist, told Farmtario in November 2022. “Given the role of women in farming, this data highlights a pretty serious problem that we have to start looking into.”

Suicidal ideation was twice as high in farmers as in the general population said University of Guelph researcher Dr. Andria Jones in a 2022 article from the university. Jones led the research that year.

She also noted that one in four participants reported having thought their life wasn’t worth living, wishing they were dead, or having thoughts of taking their own life in the 12 months leading up to the survey.

The post National survey of farmer and rancher mental health launches appeared first on Farmtario.

The survey invites farmers and ranchers across all commodities and regions in Canada to share their experiences with stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, resilience, and coping mechanisms. It’s conducted in partnership with the University of Guelph.

“Strong participation helps ensure that future research, programs, and policy decisions are informed by the real experiences of farmers and ranchers,” the centre said in a news release.

WHY IT MATTERS: The survey will improve understanding of the current state of mental health in agriculture and build on the previous national surveys from 2016 and 2021.

In 2021, the showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had worsened existing issues of high stress, anxiety, and burnout among farmers and ranchers, with women reporting poorer mental health than men across all measures except alcohol use.

“Both women and men who farm scored worse than the general population, but the women scored even worse,” said Briana Hagen, the centre’s and lead scientist, told Farmtario in November 2022. “Given the role of women in farming, this data highlights a pretty serious problem that we have to start looking into.”

Suicidal ideation was twice as high in farmers as in the general population said University of Guelph researcher Dr. Andria Jones in a 2022 article from the university. Jones led the research that year.

She also noted that one in four participants reported having thought their life wasn’t worth living, wishing they were dead, or having thoughts of taking their own life in the 12 months leading up to the survey.

The post National survey of farmer and rancher mental health launches appeared first on Farmtario.

The International Agricultural Worker Wellness Program (IAWWP) focuses on supporting foreign workers like those employed through the temporary foreign worker (TFW) or Seasonal Agriculture Worker Programs (SAWP).

WHY IT MATTERS: Temporary foreign workers, including those in agriculture, have to manage through challenges like stress, homesickness and isolation which can weigh on their mental health.

The program follows a 2022 report that identified the wellbeing of international agriculture workers as an area requiring urgent attention. Many international workers face unique challenges due to their isolation in a foreign country, including language barriers and demanding work, according to AgWO.

The program’s senior manager, Susana Gonzalez, said the intention of the pilot was to build initiatives specialized to international agricultural workers’ experiences.

IAWWP covers three main pillars:

• “One of them is to build workshops about managing stress, understanding long-distance, loneliness and building community,” Gonzalez said. These workshops are created in English, Spanish and Tagalog, and are currently active in the Windsor-Essex and Brant-Haldiman-Norfolk regions.
• The second point is the Farmer Wellness Initiative: “This is a mental health support line that covers all Ontario, and it was developed years before this program,” she said. “So, we are extending the service of this line to international agricultural workers.” This too involves services offered in different languages.
• The final pillar is a resource guide listing supports for the workers like legal help, English classes and community activities or meeting spaces like churches.

Gonzalez said she was satisfied with the results of the pilot, which began in July 2024.

“We delivered around 25 workshops with more than 500 participants,” she said. “I can say it was great.”

More telling than the numbers, she said, were the responses from participants.

“I like to read the testimonies,” Gonzalez said.

“They say, ‘thank you for bringing these workshops. Before that, I was feeling alone, and in this workshop, I met new people. I know how to communicate well with others.’ … We are providing practical tools for the workers.”

International workers don’t always have the opportunity to socialize or find community outside of work hours.

“We intend that the learning experience must contain the work, the opportunity to meet people, socialize and express their feelings,” Gonzalez said. “These workshops must be the opportunity to not just to have practical tools. It’s a recreational opportunity, it is an opportunity to clear your mind and disconnect a little bit from work.”

Creating the IAWWP had many differences from other agricultural mental health programs.

“We have a study made talking about the real differences that the international workers face here,” she said.

“First of all, the language. The language is — wow. It’s a great barrier here.”

Also important to consider are the living conditions outside of work.

“They need to leave their families back home. So, they miss them. They suffer of isolation, homesickness. They live together with others, co-workers. Imagine (living) with your co-workers all day. It’s a huge difference.”

“That’s the reason that it’s very important to them let know that the farmer wellness initiative exists,” Gonzalez continued. “They can reach support any time all year, and it’s free and confidential.”

As she explained, keeping international workers happy and mentally well is also a benefit to the employer, the farmer.

“The farmers have a business,” she said, “and every business needs to be profitable, and you are going to get that goal if you attend to your people.” Gonzalez said she has seen some farmers get involved with the workers and attend events like soccer games with them.

Like with farmers, there is the hurdle of cultural taboos to overcome when creating mental health programming for international workers.

“We have workers coming from Mexico, Jamaica, Thailand, Philippines, Guatemala,” she said. “For Latin American cultures, there is a stigma to express your feelings.”

“You are the man. You are strong. Men don’t cry.”

She added it can be a challenge to convince the workers it is ok for them to access these supports, though hearing from peers who have benefited from the program can help them to open up.

With over one year now passed since the pilot launched, Gonzalez said there is still more work ahead. She said the workshops in Windsor can be delivered for one hour, but in the remote areas of Brant-Haldiman, there is less time for workshops. CMHA is now trying to adapt programming around this small available amount of time.

The post Program promotes international worker mental health appeared first on Farmtario.

A large study found a small but consistent dip in people’s wellbeing in the run-up to Christmas. One psychological process that often shows up under this pressure is worry.

It helps to separate worry from anxiety, because although they feel similar, they are not the same. Worry is mostly a thought process, often taking the form of “what if” questions such as “what if I don’t make everyone happy?” or “what if the cooking goes wrong?”. It tends to be negative and focused on the future.

Anxiety, by contrast, is the body’s threat system revving up. People may experience it as tension, dread, a racing heart or a churning stomach. But there is another part of worry that is particularly important. The issue is rarely the first “what if” thought. It is what happens next.

A psychological approach called metacognitive therapy focuses on the beliefs people hold about worrying itself. These beliefs can quietly determine whether worry passes quickly or turns into a long spiral.

Some beliefs sound reassuring or even helpful. Research has identified positive beliefs such as “worrying helps me prepare”, “worrying stops bad things from happening”, or “worrying shows I care”.

Others are more openly distressing. Negative beliefs include thoughts such as “my worrying is uncontrollable” or “my worrying is dangerous”.

Together, these beliefs can keep worry going by making it feel urgent, important and impossible to step away from.

When worry feels urgent and uncontrollable, people often try to manage it in ways that backfire: answering one “what if” with another, seeking repeated reassurance, misusing alcohol, or trying to block thoughts altogether.

Interrupting the worry pattern

One way to interrupt this pattern is to catch worry early and picture it as a text message.

A worry thought arrives like a message on your phone: What if the dinner goes wrong? What if they spoil things? What if they are disappointed with the gift?

You did not choose for the message to arrive. Thoughts often appear automatically. But the message contains a link and invites you to click on it. Clicking the link leads to prolonged worrying, rising anxiety and attempts to solve unsolvable problems at 2am.

The key point is this: you may not control which messages arrive, but you can learn not to click every link. That is the most controllable part of worry.

A technique designed to do this is called “worry postponement”, and it is more evidence based than it sounds. Studies and reviews show that postponing worry, or confining it to a specific time window, can reduce overall worry levels.

The idea is simple. You are postponing engagement with worry, not pretending it is not there. Pick a daily “worry slot” that is not just before bed. Five to ten minutes is enough.

Postponing worry

When a worry message arrives outside that window, do something small but deliberate: notice it, name it as worry, and postpone it. For example: “That’s a worry message. I’ll deal with it at 7:30 p.m.” If it returns later, do the same again: notice, name, postpone.

When 7:30 p.m. arrives, you can engage with the worry if you choose, but only for the agreed time.

Many people forget to use the slot at all, or find that after a day of postponing worry they feel less motivated to start worrying. Evidence suggests that learning to control your response to worry reduces its power.

Another helpful step is questioning beliefs about the usefulness of worry.

Worry often masquerades as protection. It can feel like it prevents disappointment, shows how much you care, or keeps bad things from happening.

One study found that over 90 per cent of people’s worries, as logged day to day, did not come true.

Dealing with worry step by step

Even when the issue is real, such as money or a difficult family situation, worry is not the same as dealing with the problem. Studies suggest that getting stuck in worry can make people less clear, less confident and more anxious than approaching the issue in a practical, step-by-step way:

• If the task is preparation, planning works better than worrying.
• If the task is avoiding conflict, setting a boundary is more effective than worrying.
• If the task is showing care, actions matter more than worry.

Reframing these beliefs as another kind of scam message can make worry feel less convincing and less worth clicking on.

Christmas can be a difficult time, with heightened pressures and expectations. Learning not to click every worry link can make it more manageable. It is a skill for life, not just for Christmas.

—Robin Bailey is an assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Cambridge.

The post How to deal with worry this Christmas appeared first on Farmtario.

“One service provider even talked about how a survivor left everything behind except for her horse,” said researcher Sue O’Neill.

“She had to bring her horse with her.”

Speakers at the Humane Canada One Health One Welfare Conference in Ottawa explained the intersections between animal health and gender-based violence. This included lack of supports in cases involving livestock and how the welfare of animals can be used against victims.

O’Neill, a PhD student, has researched the relationship between gender-based violence and farmed animals. She said she “kept hearing from survivors and service providers that there were gaps for survivors who had larger companion or farming or working animals.”

The bond between survivor and animal

She found there are often strong connections between survivors and animals.

“Survivors and service providers really emphasized that there was an emotional impact of the connection survivors had to these types of animals,” O’Neill said in breakout session at the conference.

That bond was often offered a source of happiness and contrast to the abuse they were experiencing.

The species of the animal didn’t always matter. O’Neill told the story of one survivor who spoke about a cow the same way she would expect someone to speak about a dog.

Another said she would often talk to her goats who would bleat back at her. This was more response than she got from her partner, who would stonewall her.

“Multiple survivors really highlighted that their bond with these types of animals actually offers emotional support and described it as also offering radical acceptance,” O’Neill said.

Animals used against victims

Farm animals can also provide security. One survivor said she felt safer in a paddock with her horse than in her home. Another said her cow was her inspiration to leave, since she felt she must build a better life for her and the cow.

However, the security and comfort the animals provide can be used against survivors. O’Neill said abusers will sometimes threaten harm or financial abuse such as selling animals below their value to keep their victims in place.

The animals might also be integral to the survivor’s income and livelihood. If they leave the abusive relationship, their financial security might be impacts — particularly when the abuser maintained access to the animals.

This can also become a concern when the welfare of a farm is at stake if victims choose to leave.

Animal abuse and intimate partner violence are often inextricable linked said Humane Canada justice and legislative affairs manager Kerri Thompson in a panel discussion.

“Violence does not happen in a vacuum,” Thompson said. “Hurt people hurt people, and they will also hurt animals.”

Few supports

For survivors, supports can be few and far between. O’Neill said there are select programs that offer to shelter animals, but they are rare and often nonexistent in rural or remote areas.

This is especially true of larger farm animals which require greater care, including trailering, handling or milking.

In some cases, neighbours experienced with farm animals may offer care — though this might require the sympathetic neighbor to go to the home of the abuser.

“All of this leads to survivors being faced with a really impossible choice,” O’Neill said. “If survivors have to sell or give up their animals, they may never know what happens to these animals. It can be very traumatic.”

There can also be concerns around privacy in rural communities where information travels quickly among neighbours.

Though the issue is complex, O’Neill pointed to several measures which could represent the beginning of meaningful change.

One would be to encourage gender-based violence shelters to adopt co-sheltering or community programs that offer off-site animal safekeeping, boarding or fostering. Though these programs are often focused on smaller pets, she said they could open the door to addressing bigger problems with more sustainable change.

A one health approach could be part of the solution said University of Windsor professor Amy Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald’s research examines links between animal studies and criminology.

“We think that achieving gender justice is going to require ecological and species justice,” Fitzgerald said. “One health, one welfare helps to highlight these important connections.”

The post Domestic abuse survivors may need extra support when livestock is involved, experts say appeared first on Farmtario.

Why it matters: Farms are risky workplaces, mentally and physically. Personal connections and examples make communicating that risk easier.

Throughout the four-day virtual event, speakers discussed how to make farms safer and healthier places both mentally and physically. Many speakers agreed that tough statistics and data may give accurate figures about safety and incidents, but real-life examples have more power.

“Stories move people. Stories matter. Stories can move policy, and they do,” said Bryan Weichelt, a research scientist with the Wisconsin-based National Farm Medicine Centre (NFMC).

“These aren’t just numbers on a poster at an academic conference or on a slide at a webinar. These are real people, real families, and far too often, real children.”

Alberta farmer and host of the Rural Woman Podcast, Katelyn Duban spoke about her experience moving to a farm later in life, and how much the stories of other rural women influenced and helped her understand risks on a farm.

“It’s from hearing from other women in agriculture who have lived these risks — their stories have opened my eyes even wider to what safety really means on a farm,” she said.

“When women share their stories, whether it’s about a near miss on equipment, or the weight of being overworked or the toll of mental health … They are opening the door to this cultural change.”

Those stories, she said, have more power than manuals or checklists ever could.

Duban closed by encouraging anyone in agriculture to share their stories, because “what seems ordinary to (farmers) could be extraordinary to somebody else.”

NFMC Communications Manager Scott Heiberger spoke about how storytelling relationships between farmers and journalists can result in more effective safety communication. He said farm fatality reports can be valuable to media, but journalists often need personal stories to help draw attention to their stories.

Heiberger said the NFMC created a website, AgInjuryNews, which provides a database of on-farm injury reports across the United States. Journalists can use this system to research past incidents to keep current ones from seeming like anomalies, he said.

“We can try to get out of the mindset that, ‘stuff just happens, and that’s farming for you,’” he said.

As an example, he mentioned a time when a reporter was writing a story about a tractor fatality in his area.

“He went to AgInjuryNews. He just started poking around, and he was based in the D.C. area, and found a tractor fatality in Virginia.

“He contacted the family that had lost a family member a few years earlier and interviewed them and came up with a lead that caught people’s attention, so that they could get to the rest of the really good reporting he had done.”

In the final presentation of the conference, Ontario dairy farmer and social media “agvocate” Tim “Farmer Tim” May cautioned attendees about what can happen if agriculture’s story isn’t told responsibly.

Through his social media presence, which includes over 130,000 followers on Facebook, and outreach efforts like farm tours, May works to demystify dairy farming and agriculture in general.

“It’s our responsibility to tell our story,” he said. “We have organizations that speak for us. We have the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, farm safety associations … but farmers really need to be telling their stories too.”

May showed several examples of online misinformation spread by industry opponents like animal activists or those selling health products trying to smear the dairy sector.

“I’ve been trying to tell the story of our farm, the story of agricultural in general,” May said. “And for those of you who think it’s someone else’s job to do that, … that’s partly true, but there’s other people out there who want to tell that story for you, and you may not like the moral to that story.”

The post How stories promote farm safety appeared first on Farmtario.

“I explain AgTalk as the farmer coffee row… backed by trained clinicians. Anyone involved in agriculture is welcome,” said Do More Ag executive director Merle Massie in a news release.

“You don’t have to be in crisis to find AgTalk useful and powerful. We are proud to work with our partners to build a space where people can be themselves, and welcome, without masking what they’re feeling and pretending to be OK.”

BASF Canada, the RBC Foundation and the McCain Foundation have renewed commitments to support AgTalk, which is backed by online mental health support community Togetherall.

The platform provides a safe, anonymous space for people over the age of 16 to connect, share struggles, stories and advice, and to receive support, according to Do More Ag’s website. It’s monitored around the clock by clinicians.

Do More Ag launched the platform in 2023. Since then, AgTalk has seen more than 10,000 interactions, the news release says.

The top five issues for AgTalk users mentioned are stress, depression, anxiety and relationships.

More than 60 per cent of AgTalk users are not receiving any formal mental health support and one third of users don’t access any mental health support outside of AgTalk. One in three users had considered suicide.

“In agriculture, where long hours, unpredictable conditions and high stakes are part of daily life, talking about mental health can be difficult. Too often, members of our community face these challenges in silence and feel isolated. That’s why platforms like AgTalk matter,” said BASF Canada vice president Leta LaRush.

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