How ‘honor culture’ threatens Kansas farmers’ mental health and what we can do about it

The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Jason Schmidt is a fifth-generation Kansas farmer and the proprietor of Grazing Plains Farm southeast of Newton.

As a farmer, I have an over-abundance of time to be with my own thoughts. Luckily, unlike past generations, I have podcasts!

A recent episode from one of my favorite podcasts, Shankar Vendantam’s Hidden Brain, especially resonated with me. In this episode, Vendantam interviews Ryan Brown, Rice University psychologist, about honor cultures:  “Honor cultures are societies that put the defense of reputation at the heart of social life, and make that defense one of the highest priorities people have.”

As I listened to Brown, I nearly forgot to keep milking the cows as it resonated so profoundly with my life as a farmer! Honor cultures are found all around the world, from Afghanistan to Algeria to rural America. They are easily passed down through generations and particularly thrive in communities that are small and rural.

Two conditions spawn honor cultures: When people are economically insecure, and when law enforcement is unreliable. In these cultures, a person’s reputation and the perception of invincibility are of utmost importance.

The challenges of living in an honor culture and the insecurities it breeds resonated so much that I had to share this with my therapist. A farmer himself, we both spent an hour discussing and putting the pieces together regarding the challenges of living and farming in this culture. Economic insecurity? Constantly! Maintaining a good reputation? Always!

I’ve often felt that peer pressure among farmers is stronger than in a junior high classroom. The need to be perceived as successful, tough and resilient in the face of enormous challenges is constant. To have clean, weed-free fields, shiny new farm equipment, ever increasing acreage, and still be perceived as polite and strong is stressful. No wonder suicide is, as in all honor cultures, a pandemic among farmers.

If you’re a close reader, you will have noticed that I just mentioned that I see a therapist. The disdain with which many farmers talk about mental health treatment is real and sad. Hopefully, this mindset will become a relic of the past. This is a tough profession, so why not admit that we can use a little help to give us the psychological tools to cope?

The widespread acceptance of telehealth during the pandemic has opened the door to mental health resources, and with a little nudge from my wife, I now eagerly look forward to virtual visits with my therapist.

In addition to the challenges of mental health that honor culture brings to farmers in rural America, I have also been struck by the allergic reaction to change that honor culture brings to agriculture.

And change is needed as we look into an uncertain future in farm country with a changing climate. As President Biden rolls out his ambitious (and needed) goals to halve U.S. carbon emissions over the next decade, agriculture must be part of the discussion.

Changing farming practices is an up-hill battle. Federal agriculture policy drives the production of commodities. High input, land and equipment prices drive farmers into narrow production models. Then you add in the ubiquitous honor culture across farm country. Sticking your neck out to have a field or a production model that looks different from your neighbors’ risks your reputation and your future. Having a weedy field makes you the talk at the grain elevator and might make access to more farm land impossible.

And yet, system-wide changes are needed. As a practitioner of regenerative farming practices, I firmly believe agriculture can be part of the solution and not a contributor to human-induced climate change. How do we get there?  Maybe, as Ryan Brown suggests, we build on the better parts of honor culture that values care for our communities.

But maybe we need to directly confront the destructive aspects of honor culture and learn to live with more humility.

Every morning I get to practice confronting honor culture when I open the refrigerator to grab some fresh milk for breakfast and see my wife’s grayish liquid labeled “almond milk.” As a dairy farmer, staring at this liquid makes me shake my head. But I have to humbly admit that these products are good and fill an important role for dairy-sensitive or vegan individuals.

Living with humility is worth it. I guarantee it’s less stressful than always having to defend your reputation. Dare to consider that our current perceptions, whether they be our views about seeing a therapist or what our neighbor’s field “should” look like, might need to change.

Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. For information, including how to submit your own commentary, click here.