Chris Pawelski, a fourth-generation farmer who started working on his family’s farm when he was young, watched as it experienced the ebbs and flows of farming. His family farm is the subject of a recently released documentary called “Muckville.”
Pawelski, a former onion farmer, shared his struggles with the cost of farming and mental health on this episode of the “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast.
Part of the documentary stems around Pawelski’s family’s struggle to make ends meet with their onion farm, from an increase in the cost of production to the low returns on the crop. In the documentary, Pawelski talks about how public policy supports program crops and how little goes toward specialty crop farmers.
“Only roughly 1% of the population is involved in agricultural farming. There is an incredible amount of disconnect between the regular population and the farming community. They simply don’t understand what’s involved. They don’t understand the process, what it takes to grow things, the cost of production, nor how little the farmer gets,” he said. “The public has this notion that, you know, basically it’s you walk hither and thither and throw out seeds and things come up and then money is thrown at us. Nothing can be farther from the truth.”
Pawelski said through the documentary and advocating for specialty crop farmers in Washington D.C., he and his wife, Eve, were transparent about the debt owed and the cost it took on him and his family, to the point where Pawelski talks about contemplating committing suicide to end his family’s struggles.
“Even in my small community, there’s been a number of farmers or their children who have committed suicide over the years, and it’s a very difficult thing,” he said.
Pawelski also felt it was important to share the type of help his family received from New York FarmNet, a Cornell University-based program that offers support and assistance to farmers in the state. FarmNet helped the family with mental health issues, farm transfer and more.
Pawelski said it’s difficult for many farmers to talk about struggles and mental health issues, but he approaches it like finding a pest in a crop; it’s important to deal with the issue so it doesn’t become a bigger problem.
“We need get away from that stigma,” he said of being afraid to talk about mental health. “If you cut yourself, you stop the bleeding and you fix it. You take something for the pain, and you treat it according. If you have pain in your emotions or your mental well-being you need to treat it and we really need to have people look at it that way and accept it.”
“Muckville” is available for viewing on Hudsy.tv after registering for a free account.
To watch this full “Tip of the Iceberg” podcast episode, click on the video player above.
