Half Of Hawaii’s Younger Farmers Battle Depression. Here’s What Researchers Are Doing 1 Mental health professionals are drumming up new, more diverse ways to help struggling farmers.
Almost one in every two farmers in Hawaii under the age of 46 has suffered from depression and nearly 14% have experienced suicidal thoughts, according to bleak new statistics with major implications for the state’s ambitious food security goals.
The figures, gleaned from the first study of its kind on the unique mental health challenges of food growers statewide, are almost double the rate of depression and suicide among Hawaii’s general population.
“It’s disturbing because if we don’t have farmers who are well, then what are we going to have, robots feeding us?” said Thao Le, who led the study as director of the Seeds of Wellbeing project at the University of Hawaii Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
