Climate Stress & Grief: Building Awareness and Resilience Strategies for Ag Professionals & Producers in the West

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Commodities

Practices

• Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, quality of life, social networks

The rapid acceleration of climate change is bringing new challenges to producers, not only in terms of drought and wildfire, but also mental health and emotional well-being. Agricultural service providers who support farmers are also experiencing increasing demands to provide support in the wake of more frequent extreme weather events. Research shows that people who increase their awareness of and talk about stress and grief related to climate change are more resilient, likely to take action, and have a better quality of life. 

Climate Stress & Grief: Building Awareness and Resilience Strategies for Ag Professionals & Producers in the West is a train-the-trainer proposal developed by an interdisciplinary team comprised of Oregon State University Extension educators, researchers in agricultural education and behavioral health, and a community-based mental health provider. In 2023, we piloted a successful thirty-minute climate stress and grief module, which was vetted by producers. This project will build a train-the-trainer program for agricultural professionals and producers based on the lessons learned from the pilot. Grant funds will be used to:

• identify five farmers dealing with climate stress and document their stories through videos and articles
• create a 90-minute train-the-trainer program that can be delivered virtually or in person
• deliver 90-minute program three times on-line and at six conferences
• develop a guide to using the educational materials (powerpoints, agendas, producer videos and facilitator best practices)
• offer a quarterly moderated discussion group for agricultural professionals on climate stress and grief
• create a three-hour module on climate stress and grief for producers

Strong partnerships with existing train-the-trainer programs for agricultural professionals in the West will enable us to quickly disseminate the trainings. An expert evaluation team will analyze the impacts of the project and allow us to adapt the materials and approach throughout the project based on feedback from participants.

Objective 1: By March 2027, 300 agricultural professionals will have been trained online to provide the 30-minute and the 3-hour curricula during their existing programming for producers.

Objective 2: By July 2027, 240 agricultural professionals will have been trained at 6 conferences to provide the 30-minute and 3-hour module curricula.

Objective 3: By July 2027, 325 agricultural professionals will have participated in a moderated discussion on Climate Stress and Climate Grief.

Objective 4: By July 2027, 540 agricultural professionals will have received permission to access training and evaluation materials through a secure website.

Objective 5: By July 2027, each trained agricultural professional will have provided at least one training to producers.