UNITE Health and Safety Stay safe
n By Helen Armstrong
Latest on workers’ safety news DON’T LET YOUR Mental health issues can be serious – don’t suffer in silence
Agriculture has always been demanding. Modern mechanised farming has not changed this. The disruptions of Brexit and Covid have ramped up stress and levels of mental health problems, from depression and anxiety to suicide.
Workers face government cuts, social security reforms, the cost of living crisis and threats to job security, pay and conditions. The physical demands of agricultural work, and its risks, long hours, financial instability, working alone, unpredictable weather and other factors can have a silent impact on workers’ mental health.
In October 2021, the Rural Agricultural
Benevolent Institution (RABI) published The Big Farming Survey, a survey of 15,000 ‘farmers, farm workers, contractors and their households’ on the ‘health and wellbeing of the farming community in England and Wales’.
It concluded that the issues have been ‘hiding in plain sight’ and ‘The poor experiences described in this report … must not continue.’
It showed that over 20 per cent of farming businesses lost money in
2019/20; ‘More than one farmer a week takes their own life … in a sector with a rate of accidents 20 times higher than the all-industry rate.’ On top of this, ‘The phasing out of the Basic Payments Scheme represents a fundamental shift in farming support policy and … the incomes and lives of farming households.’
The survey concluded that over a third of the agricultural community are probably or possibly depressed, and almost half suffer from anxiety.
Young farming people are more likely than normal to feel loneliness all or some of the time, and may not feel able to confide in others, although, happily, many do have the support of friends, family and colleagues.
Anyone in farming has a personal view on stresses, but significantly, “Regulation, compliance and inspection” tops the list, and not far behind are fears around loss of subsidies and future trade and support, and the environmental demands on them. Further down but significant is concern that their work is not valued by the public, who do not understand the importance of farmed countryside in
32 uniteLANDWORKER Spring 2024
the nation’s wellbeing. The report also shows physical health at risk, with 25 per cent of respondents unable to do physical work at some point due to injury at work, and 23 per cent reporting long term physical health problems.
Says, Unite Dorset FDA Branch’s John Burbidge, “If you're feeling low, but it’s
not stopping you enjoying the life around you, then you are probably on track. But if it's overwhelming you, get help. It can really make a difference. Working when one is distracted is dangerous.
“Farming has been in economic crisis for years, with abrupt redundancies and so on, and as you move down the income levels, generalised insecurity. This has combined with all the other issues affecting people in urban and rural areas since the banking crisis.
“What is now different, is that this has significantly intensified over the last two years, and most farming sectors are affected. For example the bird flu epidemic led to a big decline and change in the poultry flock in the UK due to DEFRA regulations on compensation for losses making
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