“At Some Point, You Just Run Out of Road”: Farmers' Concerns About the Future of Agriculture

Abstract While research exploring factors related to farmers' mental health has been conducted more extensively in the past decade, much of the published literature in this domain focuses on acute stress and mental health challenges, rather than long term worries of agricultural producers. The purpose of this study was to use a systems‐based approach to explore farmers' concerns for the future of agriculture, both in the context of their own operations and the industry as a whole. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 31 managers and owners of small‐ to mid‐sized farms in Georgia. Interview recordings were transcribed, and inductive coding was used for data analysis. Farmers' concerns for the future of their own operations were driven by financial stress, challenges finding and retaining workers for their operations, increased regulatory pressure, and worries about farm succession planning. Many of these concerns were connected to larger concerns about the future of agriculture as a whole, which were primarily related to a widening disconnect between farmers and the general population, the gradual consolidation of farming operations under corporate ownership, and changing weather patterns that threatened established patterns of agricultural production and compounded other issues in the agricultural industry to threaten domestic food security. By focusing on future concerns rather than acute occupational stressors, this study highlights factors that impact farmers' mental health that fall outside the scope of community or individual interventions, and require a systems‐based approach to address institutional drivers of stress and poor mental health among farmers.