This article was first published in the September-October 2025 issue of Soybean Business. Click here to read the digital edition. 

Jeff Winton has traveled across the country on a personal mission to prevent suicides in rural communities. He knows the grief all too well: In 2012, Winton, who was raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York, lost his nephew, Brooks Winton, to suicide just a few hours after celebrating a family wedding.

“He was the last person in our family who we’d ever thought was struggling,” Winton said. “We had no idea he was struggling with mental illness or substance use disorder, or that he was contemplating suicide.”

In his role as founder and chairman of Rural Minds, Winton has shared the story of his nephew’s death countless times during meetings with advocacy groups, including the American Soybean Association (ASA). More than a dozen years since Brooks’ suicide, Jeff still chokes up recalling his final hug with his nephew and the grim moment he learned of Brooks’ decision to take his own life.

The shock reverberated throughout Winton’s family and farming community.

“It’s the worst thing that can ever happen to someone,” he said. “At that point, our world changed, our entire family changed. The dynamics in our family changed.”

Rallying around a cause

With support from ASA, Rural Minds in 2024 introduced the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program, toolkit with free mental health information, resources and training to assist rural residents in improving mental health in their communities. The Rural Mental Health Resilience Program acknowledges the self-reliance and do-it-yourself mindset that are common among farmers and others living in rural areas by providing online access to free educational content that can be printed for distribution, links to mental health support services, and a toolkit for planning, promoting and leading community conversations about rural mental health.

“We are grateful to the American Soybean Association for their partnership with Rural Minds to introduce the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program,” Winton said.. “(Their support is) an important opportunity to provide potentially life-saving information to confront the mental health challenges in rural America and the stigma that surrounds mental illness.”

The initiative builds on ASA’s commitment to addressing rural mental health through its #SoyHelp program, which serves as a resource for national and state-specific mental health information in states with soy farmers.

The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA) has also supported the program through social media posts and media engagement. “MSGA has been an advocate of mental health over the years,” MSGA President Darin Johnson said. “We know how important mental health is and we want to make sure people know what’s out there for resources.”

Removing the stigma around mental illness in rural America means addressing the crisis, not ignoring it. When Brooks died, community members were reluctant to discuss why and how he chose to end his life. Brooks family was advised to consider saying he instead perished in an accident or from a heart attack.

“They don’t want to talk about this epidemic,” Winton said. Instead, the Wintons, led by Jeff’s late mother, Elaine, decided to lift the veil on rural mental health and confront some hard truths in rural communities, which encompass about 46 million Americans. Of those 46 million, about 25% of rural residents live with a behavioral health issue. In Winton’s small town, seemingly everyone had a story to tell about depression and addiction, either directly or through a loved one’s experiences.

Elaine Winton helped bring the topic out of the shadows. No more hiding.

“We’re not only going to talk about it, we are going to talk about it in detail,” Winton said. “This has been going on in this farming community for far too long. I can count on both hands and feet and other appendages how many families have gone through this, and now we’re going to talk about it.”

Rural Minds was created three years ago with a focus on the agricultural community. Since its inception, the group is looking to work with indigenous and Amish population, the latter of which has a prominent farming presence in New York.

“We’re really focused on ensuring that the stigma gets addressed and that people are starting to feel comfortable to talk about this without being ashamed or embarrassed,” Winton said. “Mental illness is an illness like cancer or heart disease, and we’ve got to start treating it as such.”

Resources to save lives

Part of the issue with confronting mental wellness in rural America is a lack of resources, Winton said. About 75% of rural counties don’t support a psychiatrist, and rural health care facilities have 20% fewer physicians than in urban counties, while 80% of rural Americans lack access to a psychiatric nurse. And telemedicine can also be a barrier: about 30% of rural residents can’t access the internet. In addition, millions of rural Americans are either uninsured or under-insured. However, many insurance companies offer patient assistance programs and community partners have also increased engagements. To complicate matters further, the opioid epidemic – which can lead to mental illness – has disproportionately affected rural communities.

“If a person has to decide between paying for their insulin or paying for an antipsychotic medication, they’re going to choose their insulin,” Winton said. “But there are a lot of programs that can help.”

The stereotypical strong, silent type in agriculture is outdated, Winton said. The culture has changed, and agriculture must continue bringing mental wellness to the forefront.

“We are in a race against time,” he said. “We’re striving t o end the suffering, stigma and silence that surrounds mental illness in rural America. To learn more about free mental health resources and receive Rural Minds’ monthly newsletter, visit ruralminds.org.

Suicide rates are 64%-68% higher among people living in rural areas compared to people living in large urban areas. Despite representing only 2% of the population, farmers and ranchers are nearly twice as likely to die by suicide compared to other occupations.     

Winton urges growers to remember a three-digit number – 988 – which is a national network of local crisis centers providing free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   

  “Besides helping you in a crisis, they will also help you find local resources,” Winton said. “It’s a starting point.”   

 More mental health resources are available at soygrowers.com.