Raising the Red Flag for Mental Health Awareness for Farmers

By Michelle Pelletier Marshall, Women in Agribusiness Media (October 28, 2025)

Some of you may have noticed a new topic covered at the 2025 Women in Agribusiness Summit. Perhaps the title – Strong Minds Minds, Strong Farms: Supporting Mental Health in Agriculture – caught your attention because of the increased focus on mental health in all aspects of life and livelihoods, or perhaps the messaging resonated with something experienced in your life.

The truth of the matter is that addressing mental health issues for farmers is at a critical impasse. Multiple studies have shown that farmer suicide rates are 2-5x higher than the national average (and the average is 14.1 per 100,000 population in 2023). While most jobs face a few typical stressors, farmers face them all: natural disasters, extreme weather events, financial uncertainty, fluctuating markets, labor shortages, trade disruptions, isolated setting, worries of business ownership succession and much more.

The facts became more real as they were shared through the experiences that WIA speaker Taylor Sewell of the Mind Your Melon Foundation described.

Mind Your Melon is Born

Sewell, along with her husband, Marshal, founded Mind Your Melon in 2018 (it was designated a non-profit organization in 2024). This grassroots effort was framed around a mission to create community with farmers, ranchers, and agricultural families facing complex stressors through research, advocacy, and outreach; and a vision to cultivate a thriving agricultural community where farmers, ranchers, and their families are empowered, resilient, and supported.

Taylor and Marshal Sewell, Founders of Mind Your Melon

The passion for this had its roots in devastation. While both Sewells work in the sector – Marshal in commercial insurance and Taylor in crop nutrition – for generations, Marshal’s family had grown strawberries in their native Plant City, Florida. After a severe crop failure in 2007, followed by the insurmountable fallout to recoup, Marshal’s father took his own life. Working through the loss and grief as a senior in high school, Marshal knew he would focus his career on helping farmers in some way. More than a decade later, after a sequence of events found Marshal making presentations about mental health awareness at farm industry events, Mind Your Melon was born.

Seems that Marshal had a knack of persuading those in ag to be more proactive in dealing with their mental health by comparing it to taking care of farm equipment. “If you are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new tractor, are you going to make that investment and not do the routine maintenance? My follow up is always we are the most valuable asset on that farm, not a tractor. Why are we not doing the routine maintenance on ourselves? It is better to deal with the maintenance rather than a breakdown,” said Marshal Sewell in a 2023 interview with Specialty Crop Grower.

With that in mind, and still holding their “day jobs”, Marshal and Taylor are spreading the message of mental health awareness and solutions, such as practicing detachment (from the job), vulnerability (shout out for help if needed), and building a caring network to have people to lean on in trying times. Along with speaking engagements, their Mind Your Melon website provides helpful blog posts, resources for “minding your melon,” and the Mind Your Melon podcast, where the Sewells and their guests discuss mental health, overcoming challenges, and making a difference. 

At the Women in Agribusiness Summit

In her WIA Summit breakout presentation, Taylor Sewell spoke of a Mind Your Melon Farmer Wellbeing Survey that included 671 total industry responses (298 male; 246 female) representing 20+ commodities, 40+ associations and 56 counties, with results indicating that 66.9% felt sad or depressed, yet 52.5% had never visited a mental health professional. That, she said, needs some attention.

So, what are the top three stressors for farmers?

1. Public/lack of public understanding

2. Natural disasters

3. Weather

   
   

And what can you do to help? Be a voice, be a friend, be a resource.

Said Taylor, “I’m encouraged to see farmer mental health and wellbeing entering the discussion, it’s a vital piece of sustaining the future of agriculture. A healthy and thriving farm needs a healthy farmer. Mind Your Melon Foundation is committed to being a leader in this space.”

To learn more about Mind Your Melon and how to be a part of the solution to reduce the stigma of voicing and addressing mental health issues in ag, visit www.mindyourmelon.org.