09/02/21 - The State Of Mental Health Among Farmers

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Glenn Roberts founder of Anson Mills. www.ansonmills.com. Glenn grew up in San Diego, California, the son of a professional singer and photographer, and a former Southern belle from Edisto, South Carolina. Somewhere along the road Glenn’s overarching interests distilled into the study of architectural history and the history of food. Glenn explored rural back roads looking for the famous white Carolina mill cornl. He found this corn in a bootlegger’s field near Dillon, South Carolina in 1997 and planted and harvested his own first crop of 30 acres in 1998. Today, in addition to its collection of native heirloom grains, Anson Mills grows Japanese buckwheat, French oats and Mediterranean wheat, and Italian farro. Glen works tirelessly to manage his old grains, the land, and their growers, as well as chefs and retail customers.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Cristian Gilces, a New York State FFA Reporter who has a passion for Urban Agriculture. www.nysffa.org Throughout his Supervised Agricultural Experience he has worked at the Queens Farm, and he is a long-term intern at Grow NYC. He is also an avid indoor gardener, with an indoor greenhouse full of house plants. He strongly believes FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Arthur Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Hylio, a Texas-based company that designs, manufactures, and offers agricultural drones that precisely apply liquid and granular inputs to a wide variety of crops. https://www.hyl.io/. These units are extremely easy to use and reliable and make farming easier and more successful for everyone. Their systems have successfully treated hundreds of thousands of acres across the world and their customer base is growing every day.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Magen Allen of J A Farms Feed. www.jafarmsfeed.com Megan, her husband Jeremy, along with their four children, raise cattle, hay, and operate a feed mill and retail store in Bismarck, Arkansas. Magen is also a State Board Member with Arkansas Farm Bureau, Bismarck School Board Member, and Children's Ministry Volunteer at her local church. Since 2007, they have become a well-known feed source in Bismarck, Arkansas. Started by Jeremy and Magen Allen as a way to feed their own cattle, it has now become their passion. All mixes and individual products are available in bulk bags, 50-pound bags, or by the truck load.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Jean-Martin Fortier, a farmer, educator, entrepreneur, and best- selling author specializing in organic and biointensive vegetable production. His book, The Market Gardener https://themarketgardener.com has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide to reimagine ecological human-scale food systems. His teachings have been adapted to different online organic farming courses that support over 3400+ growers in over 90 countries. The book's goal is to help small scale Organic Farmers across the nation to become successful and get through the often-barren Winter months.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Melissa O'Rourke, Farm and Agribusiness Management Specialist at the Iowa State University Extension Service, morourke@iastate.edu . They discuss how the extension offices work, foreign farmland ownership, goat milk, how to keep the farm in the family, being good stewards of the land and women in farming, the problems that Iowa farmers face when trying to hire farm hands.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Peter Miller, an Organic Dairy Farmer from Vernon, VT https://www.vtmillerfarm.com and Harley Sterling, director of nutrition for the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union’s food service program. https://www.universalschoolmealsvt.org/ Learn how Miller Farm collaborates with the public school systems for bag in box organic milk. In 2009, Miller Farm became certified organic. What this means to the community is their animals spend their days out in the field grazing and munching. Their fields are not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Greg Cohen, who is working with Farmer Doug to crate an "Agrihood," called Baiting Brook Farm. https://baitingbrookfarm.com/. Agrihoods are based around the concept of integrating farms and gardens into neighborhoods, allowing for the development of residential neighborhoods that have a rural feel. Integrating agriculture into neighborhoods also allows for communities to supply themselves with locally-produced food.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Anneliese Abbot - Author, Malabar Farm: Louis Bromfield, Friends of the Land, and the Rise of Sustainable Agriculture. http://historyoforganic.com/ She has been researching the history of organic and sustainable agriculture since 2015.

Host and American Family Farmer, Doug Stephan www.eastleighfarm.com introduces us to Ronny Lee a 6th generation Farmer who runs Lee Turkey Farm. www.leeturkeyfarm.com The farm was first purchased by Ronny’s great-great-great-grandfather, Clement Updike, in 1868. ​At peak, the farm-raised 7000 turkeys, which were sold typically live to various places, including a Kosher plant in Lakewood. When the Federal government became more strict in their regulations for processing, some of the clients could no longer stay in business, so they began processing turkeys themselves and built retail routes to supply turkeys to local “Mom and Pop” stores and butcher shops. ​Lee Turkey Farm no longer sells to any markets; today, they only sell directly to their customers.