Abstract
Compared to other occupational groups, farmers in Ireland experience a disproportionate burden of health problems, which impact farmers’ livelihoods and farming sustainability. Internationally, farmers’ poor health outcomes are associated with intersecting economic, environmental, socio-cultural, and occupation-specific factors linked to changes in agricultural governance. This qualitative study explored the challenges and stressors facing farmers in Ireland and how changes in farming governance have impacted farmers’ identities, masculinities and health. Eleven focus groups (n = 26 female, n = 35 male, age-range 20s–70s) were conducted with both male farmers (n = 3 focus groups; n = 13) and key informants (n = 8 focus groups; n = 48, 22 male, 26 female). Utilizing Thematic Content Analysis, transcripts were coded independently by the first and second author using open and comparative coding techniques, with emerging themes grouped into primary and subthemes. Theme memos and conceptual maps tracked evolving relationships between themes. The analysis identified three broad themes. “Wrestling with challenges to autonomy and control within farming” examines the impact of tighter regulatory frameworks associated with changes to farming governance and unpacks other challenges associated with scale and succession. “Farming masculinities and health” explores how farming masculinities were closely aligned with farming practices and health practices and were framed relationally. “Isolation and the demise of rural communities” considers the impact of reduced social interaction on loneliness among farmers, particularly among more “at risk” single and older farmers. Findings provide unique insights into contemporary challenges and stressors facing farmers and have important implications for informing the design and roll-out of a national farmers’ health training program.
Highlights
Farming has long been regarded as a stressful occupation prompting widespread concern for farmers’ well-being (Kennedy et al, 2020; Lunner Kolstrup et al, 2013)
The analysis identified three broad themes, and the findings are presented below concerning each of these; “wrestling with challenges to autonomy and control within farming”; “farming masculinities and health”; and “isolation and the decline of rural communities.”
A range of distinct challenges emerged for male farmers that were seen as having eroded the degree of autonomy and control they exercised over their farming practices
Summary
Farming has long been regarded as a stressful occupation prompting widespread concern for farmers’ well-being (Kennedy et al, 2020; Lunner Kolstrup et al, 2013). The act of opposing healthenhancing behaviors or help-seeking behavior could be seen as an active demonstration of manliness for some farmers and a rejection of the more feminine connotations of weakness and stigmatization associated with health (Ní Laoire, 2005; Roy et al, 2014, 2017) In this sense, the cultural influences that shape farmers’ beliefs, attitudes, and practices are synonymous with the pursuit of a hegemonic form of farming masculinity that can be demonstrated in the avoidance of behaviors that show concern for health or that require emotional expression or help-seeking on the basis that such practices might position farmers as weak or vulnerable (Cleary, 2012; Ní Laoire, 2005; Roy et al, 2017; Verdonk et al, 2010). This does not imply that masculinity in a farming context is a fixed or consistent concept (Cush & Macken-Walsh, 2018; Roy et al, 2017), but rather that masculinities of various kinds can attain relative solidity in certain sociocultural contexts and can be more fluid in other contexts (Cleary, 2005, 2012; Cush & Macken-Walsh, 2018)
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