GREENFIELD, Ind. — An FFA student is using social media to help farmers and ranchers deal with the stress brought on by agriculture.

Much of the information is rooted in the stories farmers tell on how they learned to cope with matters ranging from unexpected mechanical breakdowns to issues created only by their imaginations.

Emily Grant has created what’s called “The Whole Farmer,” a page drawing thousands of hits on Facebook and Instagram. The 17-year old Grant raises beef cattle and sheep on her family’s seven-acre Indiana farm to show during the Hancock County fair.

Her posts include faith building phrases from the Bible and interviews with farmers on how they overcame not just the typical long work schedules and uncertainties of Mother Nature, but also the unexpected. Grant said her goal is to strictly provide a resource farmers can use to learn how to cope successfully with their emotions and achieve more peace of mind.

“I wanted to make a platform that says, hey, mental health in agriculture is an actual thing.  We need to actually say something about it,” she said.

She also wanted to let farmers know they’re not alone.

The Whole Farmer was started in October after Grant returned from an FFA leadership conference in Washington D.C. where those in attendance were encouraged to come up with a “living to serve project.”

Grant recognizing mental health as an issue in agriculture came up with the idea for her page along with the name and logo depicting a farmer in a hunter green background holding wheat.

In January, she began interviewing farmers and posting each video recording once a month.

The farmers provide glimpses of their operations and discuss some of the challenges they’ve faced and how they overcame those obstacles. Sheep farmer Matt Kennedy said worrying about money was one of his major sources of stress until his early 30s. After losing a friend to cancer, the now 55-year old Kennedy said he decided to tithe more at his church and through faith loosen the grip obsessing over finances had on him.

“I just trusted the Lord to take care of it.  He told me if you give me what’s mine then I’ll take care of the rest.  I’m just like the Lord has taken care of me and taken care of our family and he’ll continue to do that,” he said.

Grant said she has other farmers already booked for interviews she plans to keep posting monthly.

Grant has been in FFA since the eighth grade. Currently, she’s the FFA secretary for District 8 and her school chapter.

Grant said interviewing sort of came naturally with help from the skills that she learned from some of her FFA activities.

She also expressed surprise at the attention her page has drawn and being approached at times while out in the community by people who watched her interviews. Grant said most exciting, though, is knowing her efforts are doing other people some good. 

“Even though this seems like the simplest idea ever, it really did help people out and it is continuing to help people,” she said.

The junior at East Hancock High School said she wants to continue with The Whole Farmer page and showing cattle after graduating. Grant said she also plans to attend college and hopes to somehow make a living in agriculture through marketing and promotions.

She seems to be getting her feet wet already with her career aspirations.

Grant recently began making t-shirts displaying “The Whole Farmer” name and logo to help spread word about the page.