Gail Donkers, chair of the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council (MSR&PC), remembers a time in the not-so-distant past when farmers tiptoed around discussing mental health.  

“I had a friend that needed help with a mental health situation, and I did not have the tools in the toolbox that I needed to help my friend,” Donkers said. “I had the opportunity to attend a mental health training workshop, but I had passed because I figured I did not need it. So, when my friend needed help, I did the best I could, and we got her the help she needed.”  

Donkers said she learned that mental health trainings aren’t necessarily intended to look inside oneself to spot depression or stress.  

“It taught me that the mental health training is not for me,” she said. “It is to help save somebody else and that’s what we’re here for – is to save everybody that we possibly can.”  

This growing season, MSR&PC is offering a helping hand to let farmers know that they are not alone, their lives matter to their family, friends, colleagues and communities – and help is just a phone call away.  

The Council, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, is proud to team up with a broad coalition of farm, food and commodity organizations across Minnesota to support a statewide Farm Suicide Prevention Campaign. 

The campaign, which kicked off during May’s Mental Health Awareness Month, looks to spotlight the realities farmers experience and provide resources to those in need.  

“I am thrilled that MSR&PC is helping MDA with their Farm Suicide Prevention Campaign because we need all the help we can get in rural America to save every farmer possible,” Donkers said. 

Currently, farmers are facing economic challenges that have people recalling the farm crisis of the 1980s. These pressures, coupled with farmer suicide rates estimated to be 3.5 times higher than the general population, underscore the need to talk more openly about stress and mental health in agriculture. 

“We’re all hearing increasing reports of farmers in stress who have taken, or may be thinking of taking their own lives, and we’re all concerned about them,” said Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. “We are humbled by the immediate and generous response from our partners who have contributed $47,500 so far to this suicide prevention campaign.”  

Along with MSR&PC, campaign contributors include: 

• Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) 

• Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association 

• Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council 

• Minnesota Foundation for Agriculture 

• Minnesota Grocers Association 

• Minnesota Pork Producers Association 

• Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers 

• Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council  

• Second Harvest Heartland 

The campaign uses 30-second radio spots to broadcast on more than 150 AM/FM radio stations throughout Minnesota, as well as social media. Upcoming workshops in agricultural communities will also teach farmers, farm family members and agricultural advisers skills they need to help keep a suicidal person safe. 

Messages talk about the higher-than-average risk of suicide that farmers and ranchers face and ways farmers who are struggling can seek effective, nonjudgemental help – such as calling or texting 988 or reaching out to the Minnesota Farm and Rural Helpline at 833-600-2670. The campaign also offers tips to family members and others who are concerned, but don’t quite know how to help.  

The effort was created by an advisory group that includes agricultural mental health providers, Minesota Department of Health’s Suicide Prevention Program, the Minnesota chapter of NAMI, the National Association for Mental Illness, University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota Soybean Growers Association Director Bob Worth. 

“Getting help if you have anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts is really no different than going to the doctor about heart trouble or high blood sugar,” said Worth, who’s spoken with local, state and national groups on the importance of rural mental wellness. “We’ve got to let people know that getting help helps.” 

MSGA also advocates lawmakers in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., for rural mental health resources. 

Organizations or businesses looking to support the campaign efforts can contact MDA’s Meg Moynihan at Meg.Moynihan@state.mn.us. Additional agricultural mental health, stress, financial resources and other information are available at www.mnfarmstress.com. MSGA and the American Soybean Association are also supporters of ruralminds.org.

“We want (farmers) to get back to enjoying life and being productive and farming or being with your family and doing all those things that are meaningful to you,” Moynihan said.