Growing up, Carrie Barnhardt ’12 and her siblings were the fourth generation on their family’s Rowan County, N.C., dairy farm. They planned to continue the family tradition on their farm. But when the Great Recession hit while Barnhardt was in college studying agricultural science, her parents had to auction off their herd.
“Those couple of months were so incredibly stressful,” Barnhardt says. Generational farmers carry a kind of inherited stress that rarely gets acknowledged, she says. “You have these ghosts looming and just whispering that you’ve lost the farm. You failed.”
“You have these ghosts looming and just whispering that you’ve lost the farm. You failed.”
— Carrie Barnhardt ’12
That weight, along with stressors like fluctuating markets, crop-destroying weather and few mental-health resources in rural communities, can lead to severe psychological consequences. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, male farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers have a suicide rate 52% higher than that of men in any occupation.
Now, help is expanding through NC State and NC State Extension. In December, they received a one-year, $2.35 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to direct the Southern Region Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network. It strengthens mental health and well-being in farm communities in 13 states and two territories.
Key initiatives will include convening existing state and regional partner networks, building a shared clearinghouse of resources, providing training and seed funding to partners, and supporting a regional 24/7 farm stress hotline.
“Where the capacity exists, it’s about scaling up and strengthening,” says Sudha Sankar, a licensed family therapist and assistant professor of agricultural and human sciences who is the program’s co-director. “And, where it doesn’t exist, it’s about regional coordination and sharing of resources so that we can bridge those gaps.”
The project’s leader, Susan Jakes ’97 MS, ’01 PHD, NC State Extension’s associate state program leader for community and rural development, praises the grassroots advocates that the grant will support. “They’re so passionate and creative and just really committed to their work,” Jakes says.
Barnhardt now owns another farm in Rowan County with her husband, Adam Barnhardt ’14. They raise chickens and sheep and grow cut flowers. She’s proud that her alma mater is working on a problem that hits so close to home. Now, when she hears of a farmer in her network selling their herd, she’ll reach out.
“This is the worst day of your life,” she tells them, “but it does get better.”
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