This week’s featured video was produced by the Mind Your Melon project to promote an ongoing study on the mental health of farmers, farm workers, and agricultural industry professionals in Florida. The following is a short summary that explains the project and the need to respond to their online survey.
Research shows that farmers, specifically males, experience higher suicide rates than that of the general working-age population (Sussell et al., 2023). Experiences like heavy debt, market uncertainty, rising input costs, labor shortages, fluctuating markets, extreme weather, and the aftermath of natural disasters, among other things, can create significant stress on farmers and their loved ones. The purpose of this study is to better understand the mental well-being of Florida farmers and ranchers, identify challenges they may face, and ultimately use that information to develop strategies to support their health and quality of life.
Mind Your Melon has been built upon a vision to proactively approach the mental health and well-being of farmers and ranchers throughout our agricultural industry. We have been very open about the fact we are looking for solutions and tools in, relatively, uncharted territory. Through our advocacy efforts at various levels, especially nationally and internationally, we have been reminded that we measure what matters. And, to this point, we have not had great measures of things like farm stress, farmer suicide, and farmer well-being.
The Mind Your Melon Farmer Well-being Study is Florida’s opportunity to measure something that matters within our industry. You matter. Your family matters. Florida agriculture matters. Our ability to advocate on this topic stems from having the right stories to share. This survey will provide an opportunity for each of you to share your own perspective based on your personal experiences. To be clear, this will not be a quick, simple survey. Be prepared to spend 10 to 15 minutes reading, reflecting, and answering honestly. It is completely anonymous and voluntary. Meaningful resources begin with meaningful research. We humbly ask for your participation to help provide the information needed to impact the well-being of our industry members, now and for generations to come. Mind Your Melon Project
Watch the short video below, and then take the survey:
Mind Your Melon Well-Being Survey
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If you enjoyed this video, you might want to check the other 300+ YouTube videos highlighted in the Friday Feature Archive
If you come across an interesting, inspiring, humorous or innovative video related to agriculture, please send in a link, so we can share it with our readers. Use the share button from the YouTube or Facebook video you like and send the link via email to: Doug Mayo
demayo@ufl.edu - 850-482-9620
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