ORFC Session - Avoiding Burnout and Looking after our Mental Health.

The Story Museum in Oxford - where we held our session.

At the Oxford Real Farming Conference in early January 2025 three of us Rebecca Stevenson (Five Acre Community farm)  Ben Raskin (The Soil Association)  and myself Ruth Hancock (Fresh and Green Vegetables)  facilitated a workshop on ‘Avoiding Burnout and Looking After Your Mental Health’.

This was proposed as a session to the conference by Rebecca - It had in fact been scheduled in previous years, but had had to be cancelled twice due to ill health – a telling situation perhaps?

 

The session began with us introducing ourselves,  giving the rough parameters of the topic, and the purpose of the workshop. We then gave a brief over view of our own experiences around this subject.

 

We followed this by breaking into three groups of between ten and twelve people to discuss initially our experiences of burnout / overwhelm / illness / injury and other situations and feelings related to stressors we had encountered as we worked on our farming and growing projects.

The three workshop leaders captured in note form, what was said in the individual groups. 

 

After reconvening  mid way for a whole group debrief on our discussion, we then went back into our separate groups to look at some of the solutions and ways of helping ourselves and each other.

 

I have tried to capture from the notes that we made, some of the broad themes, but also specifics that came up.

In order to respect the anonymity of participants, some potentially identifying details or specifics have been omitted.

 

Notes from our first sessions on personal experiences of burnout / breakdown / overwhelm.

·         Participants reported on experiencing personal and relationship difficulties, feelings of being unable to give enough time to their loved ones, whilst also dealing with the complexities of running a land based enterprise with limited resources - of both time, and material needs.

·         Overwhelm was often experienced when trying to balance the physical work required on a holding, alongside administration tasks such as accounts and other essential form filling.

·         The lack of money earned – whether as an owner / manager or as a paid worker. Owner operators were not able to financially support themselves properly – often working for well below the minimum wage – and were only able to pay other workers the minimum wage – And even then often only on seasonal contracts, so there wasn’t a continuity of knowledge of systems, nor security of income for the workers. 

·         Work outside the holding was often undertaken to ‘prop up’ the finances of the growing project. This was sometimes seen as a positive way of maintaining a balance in life – but could also be another cause of overwhelm if it took up too much time and energy.

·         Some people reported ‘falling out of love’ with the work when they did it full time, and didn’t have enough time for other pursuits.

·         Difficulties had been experienced in dealing with landlords if the growing site was rented – insecure tenancies and uncertainty over resources such as water, and who was going to maintain or replace infrastructure such as polytunnels.

·         Difficulties in securing finance to purchase land and infrastructure if that was the preferred business model – proving to lenders that the business was viable. Dealing with the bureaucracy surrounding this was often outside the skillset of the farmer – but they couldn’t afford professional help.

·         If the land was already ‘in the family’ there could be intergenerational difficulties in getting change of use or system of growing ‘approved’ by the family.

·         Dealing with local planning departments to obtain permission for infrastructure and onsite dwelling

·         Compliance with systems such as organic certification, and other schemes involving defra. Livestock keeping often added to these issues.

·         Having extra helpers via voluntary schemes such as wwoof could be very positive – but had on occasion added to stress via having to deal with people who didn’t fit in well to the existing structure – accommodations were often made – but boundary setting was not always easy with people often living together as well and tensions could arise.

·         Working in isolation, in sparsely populated areas could lead to loneliness or boredom.

·         Being at the mercy of the weather / climate change and the uncertainty of what was to come in an increasingly unstable climate.

·         The realities of day-to-day physical work being often quite hard on the body – people running holdings that were already ‘under staffed’ didn’t feel able to take time off to recover or rest if they became ill or injured.

·         Some people had become injured or suffered illness either physical or mental to the point that they could no longer carry on working at that rate and had to go part time – or had had to quit altogether. 

      Uncertainty about the future - not having a pension plan, or savings and other resources if they had to quit the work – having accommodation ‘tied’ to the business.

 Feelings of being unable to complain about these difficulties as it felt like ‘letting the side down’ as we are mindful of trying to model and practice a different and ‘better’way.

·         ‘Bosses’ being unsympathetic to their workers needs, expecting too much – or else not giving enough responsibility and delegation.

·         Not enough of a skilled flexible workforce to be able to call on during busy periods of work.

·         Work only being seasonal for those who worked on other peoples holdings.

·         Breakdowns in communication between those ‘in charge’ and helpers or workers – not all farmers are great teachers or communicators.

·         Issues arising with neurodivergence and different ways of working and communicating.

·         Being on call 24 /7 leading to conflicts between child and elder care and maintaining the work of the holding. Sometimes this lead to a sexist ‘default’ where women were expected to step up for the majority of the caring roles – leading to a deskilling / loss of confidence in other fields

·         Not feeling as if it was acceptable to have, or want time off the farm.

·         A ‘culture’ of overwork often being seen as a badge of honour in farming and growing – rather than something that needs to be tackled – A fear that speaking up about this might be seen as ‘wimping out’ or evidence that we are not ‘tough enough’ for the job.

·         Striving for ‘Perfection’ on many fronts rather than accepting ‘Good Enough’ often brought on by comparisons with others – social media not always being very helpful in this respect.

·         The negative public perception of livestock keeping in some quarters – people feeling obliged to constantly defend themselves.

·         A lack of easily available training or help in certain aspects of the job eg machinery or administrative book-work tasks.

·         ‘Fitting in’ to a new rural community if people move to a new place could be difficult – tensions and suspicions between the ‘conventional’ agricultural community and those using a more agroecological approach. 

·         Being aware of, and corncern about global issues such as climate change, international injustices and conflicts leading to feelings of hopelessness in the individual “What’s the point of carrying on?”

·         Difficulties experienced explaining the complexities and importance of our work to the general public – Why farm revenues are generally so low - why we needmore support financially and in other ways. Some members of the public still thinking that all farmers and or growers are well off and or ‘living on subsidies.’

 

 

The above represents an overview of many, but not all of the issues that arose.

Some situations were too ‘personal’ to recount here – Whereas the complexity of other situations would require an essay all of their own.

 

Next, we will look at a selection of the ‘solutions’ that participants offered which they had used themselves or reported on for others.

At this point I think it would be positive to recount that at least one of the 30+ participants attended this session in order to help themselves avoid getting into the difficulties that others had experienced – more of this pre-emptive behaviour would be a good thing in itself!!.

 

·         So, we must first take time to acknowledge to ourselves that the pitfalls described above are potential hazards to be avoided or minimised if at all possible.

·         We need if we can to find people we trust to talk to openly about such matters. Anonymous ‘listening services’ could be available if friends or family are not appropriate.

·         Asking for help / input from outside agencies – there may be funding available to help with financing labour saving tools and infrastructure for example.

·         We should try to avoid the narrative that glorifies overwork, or that we should always be ‘on’ or always available.

·         Realising and understanding how we as individuals operate – there is no ‘One Size Fits All’ approach either in how we work personally ourselves, or around the structures that we work within.

·         We can drive ourselves ‘a little bit crazy’ – according to one participant - trying to maintain ‘purity’ on all fronts.

·         We are doing what we can, always ‘imperfectly’ in a much less than perfect food and farming system

·         It helps to establish firmer ‘boundaries’ between home and work life – especially if people work and live onsite.

·         But this is countered by the recognition that it can be more stressful / impossible to look after all elements of the operation if there is no one onsite – so we need to work out ways of getting things looked after if we are ill, or we need to take a break.

·         Getting involved in relevant groups such as Landworkers Alliance, Organic Growers Alliance, and any of the other sector-based organisations that support our work - finding people who 'get it'.

·         Making connections online and in real life – but always being aware that online social media accounts will tend to showcase the more positive aspects of their farming and growing life – so we must try not to compare too much.

·         It was suggested that men in particular don’t always find it so easy to share their difficulties and vulnerabilities so groups that meet this specific need could be established.

·         Working some ‘self-care’ into your weekly routine, participants cited sporting activities, chi gung, yoga and other forms of body work as having been helpful.

·         Keeping fit for ourselves – even if our job is physically demanding we might miss out on some aspects of maintaining our health, such as our aerobic fitness.

·         Writing down / journalling thoughts and feelings could be helpful to see what the actual issues are.

·         One participant said that visiting their local planetarium helped them put their life in perspective – those of us with the luxury of naturally dark skies could spent more time looking at the ‘real thing’ perhaps.

·         Carving out time for hobbies and interest outside of the farming and growing life – finding en-joyment in creativity, events, social groups etc which are unrelated to work.

·         Attending gatherings, farm walks, online seminars etc to skill up in areas of knowledge as necessary – but also for the social aspect of these events.

·         Asking for help more explicitly – people won’t know that you are struggling if you are always putting on a brave face.

·         Noticing mastery of, and taking pleasure in the tasks that make up our working day. Not always rushing on to the next thing on the list but taking a pause to appreciate a job well done (or done well enough !!)

·         From which flows not driving ourselves to ridiculously high standards.

·         Noticing basic needs – Are we thirsty? Hungry? Too hot? Too cold? Do we need to take a break.

·         Realising that ‘This too will pass’ – Being patient with ourselves.

·         Allowing ourselves to have time off – even if this feels ‘indulgent’ or is tricky to organise.  Having the courage to delegate jobs to someone who might ‘do it worse – but will most likely get it done’

·         Acknowledging – and preferably dealing with, past traumas and experiences that have led us to a place of being driven to over work and feeling the need to over perform in the first place.

·         Recognising neurodivergences, and accommodating or even celebrating these differences.

·         Some participants found help from consciousness or spiritual practice, and or observing rituals such as taking part in seasonal celebrations.

·         Listening to podcasts / radio at work to deal with boredom or feeling isolated.

·         Speaking more openly (when it feels safe to do so) about feeling underappreciated in terms of remuneration for work done / produce grown.

·         Identifying when it is time to pause – or even to quit altogether – realising you don’t have to carry on if it’s making you or those around you miserable and unwell, or if the enterprise cannot be made successful.

·         Perhaps changing our attitude to our work – not making it our whole identity / not holding it in our bodies and minds as such.

·         Looking at changing our work patterns if necessary for physical or mental health, job shares, going part time, working off the farm for a change of scene – and extra income.

·         Potentially changing the structure of the organisation to spread the load eg considering CSA’s and co operatives for example.

·         Engaging with outside services and resources specific to these sorts of issues – some references to these are given below.

 

 

Again, this is not an exhaustive list of the solutions that we came up with. There will be many more ways of working and being that can help address some of these issues.

 

Many thanks to the participants who joined us and who shared with us so openly their thoughts and experiences. Thanks also to ORFC for giving us the opportunity to run this session.

 

A couple of resources to which it would be great to add to …

 

Access to Work – especially around dealing with issues such as mental health neurodivergence

 https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work

 

A guide to free mental heath resources

https://www.moorepay.co.uk/blog/best-free-mental-health-resources/

including

C.A.L.M (Campaign Against Living miserably) 

A New Land Army..Revisited.

It's a while since I wrote this, in a spirit of hopefulness.

http://broadviewfromasmallfarm.blogspot.com/2020/04/

And that hope has by no means gone away, progress both political and practical has been made on many fronts.

There is certainly far greater recognition of the difficulties that farmers and growers face in bringing food to our plates.

From field to fork, so to speak.

We're not on quite this much of a slope btw..

The fact that the weather was pretty abysmal this spring is news to no one.

This really hampered us getting crops in, and those already growing overwinter were held back.. 

Or else dissolved all together. 🙁

On this little veg farm we were relatively lucky, a warmish climate, and south facing sandy loam.

But still the soil was cooler than usual, and battalions of enormous slugs munched their way through any fresh new growth.

I remember taking mesh covers off beds and thinking "I'm sure I planted lettuces here" and then wondering if I was mistaken as to where I'd put them.

It wasn't until I spied the chewed off nubs of what had been there that I realised that yes indeed. They were All Gone.

We usually plant an extra 20% or so extra crops, mindful of probable losses to the assorted wildlife, that of course we must regard as our brethren or earthly kin...When we're in appreciative enough mood .

 Entitled we understand to eat also themselves..

But it gets a tad tricky to feel all that fuzzy 'Farming in harmony with nature' when the critters have eaten everything ... 

Anyhow, looked at broadly the issues around food, sustainability, environmental concerns, and how do we get more people securely into this craft of producing good food, to feed people sufficiently and well haven't really changed.

If we do attract energetic switched on folk into this business, who see that there can be great satisfaction in feeding people well, how do we make it OK or even possible for them to stay?

The motivation to do this kind of work is unlikely to be entirely money driven. But boring old bills must be paid, living costs covered. Even nice times had, outside of the farming life, dare we suggest??

I've been asked to be part of a panel discussion later this year t the Organic growers Gathering on 'How do you keep going??" 

That's not the actual session title but it's something like.

 And yes it's a reasonable question - how do you?? 

When the first flush of adrenaline, the one that comes with setting up or taking on a business and somehow making it work has passed.

You're a little bit established, you may have had to go through some (or as in our case a lot) of planning battles to physically establish what you need to allow your productive enterprise endure.

You've spent no small amount of money, and done an unfathomable amount of work to get things going. 

Now how to make it live-able in the long term.??

Enjoyable even!? 

I've got quite a few ideas around this.

Not by any means a template for what others 'should' do. 

But certainly some hard won experience of things to think about, and options to try. 

Apologies to anyone hoping for another Pyrenean trip episode..I will get back to that -  but no great rush right?? 

An addition to the above as I'm shortly taking part in a session on 'burnout' - at Oxford Real Farming Conference.

Experiences of, and approaches to avoiding or recovering from . 

All this attaining and maintaining well being really seems to have become a theme over the last year or so. A combination of climactic economic and political challenges have driven many farmers and growers, even those of an 'agroecological' bent, to the edge, or over it.. 

There are so many aspects to the 'better' that we are striving for in our food and farming systems. Ecology, biodiversity, climate change, food quality and security, food and land justice, livable incomes, to name a few. 

 The likely reason that many of us got into these 'alternative' ways of doing things is because we were already people of conscience, active in making change in some way.

 Trouble is that even when we feel we're doing OK in one or two aspect of all of these important things to consider, it won't take us long to find some other angle that also needs improvement. 

So in addition we can beat ourselves up about, and strive on that front as well. 

 So there are rarely many feelings of 'Enoughness' or 'that will do'

 Which can so easily lead to burnout, overwhelm and even losing interest in trying to further change.

 

How do we navigate that tension?? Keep on our paths to (what we believe is) a better way, without finding it all too much, and wanting to quit?

 - Although it's also important to acknowledge that we are 'allowed' to stop if we really need or want to.

Unless you're the last heart surgeon in the country that can perform that life saving operation on a small child, you're not 'morally obliged' to keep doing a thing just because you started. 

Retiring with grace and dignity is also 'permitted' - And when we acknowledge that then it somehow makes it a lighter decision to keep going, if that's what we actively choose. 

It could be the case that even that tendency to vocalise what we feel are our shortcomings will by implication set the bar at a height that seems wholly unattainable to those around us. 

It can be off-putting to others to witness our being on an endless treadmill of 'could always do better' never 'enough'

Social media is one factor that has driven us towards this. 

We've gone from a time - when I was starting up - where we might have felt isolated in our slightly 'weird' hairy farming, to a time now when there are hundreds if not thousands of us. 

Which of course is great in many ways, in terms of movement building, it's a sign of success we're going in the right direction aren't we??

But then publicly we all tend to outwardly show our 'best sides' when we talk about improving this that or the other. 

Not that there's anything wrong with trying for better, but it can all start to feel rather competitive even. 

We need to keep in mind acknowledging how we are 'doing a bit better' in our various fields, rather than endlessly criticising ourselves - and by extension others (whether implicitly or explicitly) 

Otherwise we can end up exhausting ourselves totally and fruitlessly, whilst the industrialised food system juggernauts on past oblivious.

I've often talked before about how we can end up prostrating ourselves on the altar of 'organic growing' (or whatever our particular jam is) 

Ultimately that's not good for us or the long term viability of our enterprises and projects.

 Neither is it a 'good look' for anyone observing from the outside and considering coming into what might loosely be termed agroecology* or regenerative* food and farming. 

And of course there are all sorts of wranglings over the definitions of those* terms..Which is another rabbit hole frequently delved at conferences such as this.🐰🌱

From back in the summer at a gathering on the land - when we had a very useful - and quite surprising discussion around all of the above - Its interesting how many people who you think have got it all sorted out have had some really quite dark and difficult struggles along the way.