Alliance-Funded Research Explores How Climate Change Is Impacting Farmer Mental Health

Through a series of interviews with 36 Ontario farmers, PhD candidate Rochelle Thompson has been able to learn about farmers’ experiences first-hand. Thompson interviewed the farmers between March 2023 and May 2024. All had experienced some sort of catastrophic event associated with climate change, including prolonged droughts, barn collapses in a natural disaster and disease outbreaks. Thompson hopes to publish the results of her work in 2026.

This is not the first time University of Guelph researchers have explored the mental health of Canadian farmers.  

Thompson’s PhD advisor, Dr. Andria Jones, has performed two large national surveys over the past 10 years, collecting responses from thousands of farmers across the country. Former Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) researcher Dr. Briana Hagen also played a significant role in bringing these surveys to life.

The data collected from this, and two previous surveys, is invaluable in guiding mental health resources in organizations across Canada. The third iteration of the Survey of Farmer Mental Health in Canada kicked off in January, and will explore how mental health has changed over the past decade, particularly as farmers have dealt with challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly volatile weather. 

Read more: Climate Change Is Impacting Farmer Mental Health - U of G News

This research is funded by Cargill Canada, along with the Mitacs Accelerate Fellowship in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Agricultural Wellbeing and the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and the University of Guelph.