By Grace Hussain for Sentient.
Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration

Paula Boles says her husband, Dale, didn't want to be a farmer, but when his father passed away he found himself in possession of the family farm. Growing up, he helped raise cattle, rice and tobacco. But together the couple decided to transition the farm into something new - a chicken farm - and that's when their problems began.

It's a story common to the contract chicken farming business. The Boles were told by Tyson that raising broiler chickens would allow the couple to make easy money in retirement. Instead, they found themselves spiraling into debt, struggling to stay afloat while Tyson continued to profit. "I considered ourselves indentured servants 'cause that's...the way we were treated," says Paula Boles.

Boles says she and her husband didn't just suffer financially. Raising broilers for Tyson jeopardized their mental health and strained their marriage. For the Boles, the path out of that crisis was to become one of the few early adopters to transition out of raising livestock - converting their chicken houses to greenhouses.

They aren't alone. Though the movement is still small, it is growing, thanks in part to efforts by projects like Transfarmation and Rowdy Girl Sanctuary. For the Boles, transitioning away from raising meat for corporations has helped reduce their stress and provide freedom that they hadn't enjoyed during their years of raising chickens.

In part that's because contrary to what they were told by Tyson, the business of raising chickens for the poultry conglomerate controlled their lives. Paula recalls having to get up at 3 AM to check on the birds and the sheds anytime an alarm would go off, alerting them to something amiss. The demand was so great that Dale Boles even missed their son's college graduation, as he was unable to leave the farm.

Factory Farming Linked to Stress

In 2018, the CDC identified farmers as the occupation with the highest rate of suicide. While that specific finding was retracted due to an inaccurate interpretation of the data, mental health struggles remain a challenge in the agriculture industry.

As a therapist focused on serving farmers in rural Minnesota, Ted Matthews has firsthand experience with the mental health crisis in farming. One of the major stressors Matthews points to is the increasing size of farm operations. "Not that long ago if you had 100 or 200 cows you were a big dairy," he says. But today some dairies have tens of thousands of cows. As competitors grow in size, it's becoming harder and harder to compete, driving smaller-scale farmers into predatory contracts with conglomerates like Tyson and Smithfield.

Once they've signed a contract, the farmer loses all control over how animals are raised and, as was the case for the Boles, they don't even own the livestock they're housing.

That lack of control over everything from stocking density to feed represents a major stressor for farmers, says Tyler Whitley based upon his meetings with dozens of them. Whitley spearheads Transfarmation, one of the projects focused on helping farmers transition out of livestock, like the Boles.

Trapped in a contract with Tyson, Paula watched as thousands of chicks were dumped unceremoniously into their chicken sheds, with no regard for the condition of the animals. "You can tell within 24 hours whether you're screwed or not," says Boles, as some of the flocks were from hatcheries that produced "better birds."

As the flock got older, she would walk through the sheds filled "wall to wall and door to door" with chickens. Sometimes while making the trek she'd see a bird stiffen and fall back, a sure sign of a heart attack. "It was just really inhumane," she says.

If the dead weren't removed daily, the other birds would start pecking at the carcasses. Cleaning up the expired chickens was no easy task. "Out of that many birds, you're going to have some die everyday," she says. And as they grew heavier, several trips were required to haul their dead bodies out.

She recalls feeling especially distraught when, just a few short weeks later, they would be caught, placed into cages and loaded onto the trucks. It wasn't uncommon for birds to die during loading or on the trip to the slaughterhouse. For Boles, the animal suffering was compounded by the fact that every dead bird represented money lost and more debt.

From Chicken Barns to Growing Greens

Eventually, they were able to leverage their retirement savings and Dale's construction experience to transition their chicken sheds to greenhouses for growing greens. Now ,they help guide other farmers looking to do the same.

Even though they now have greenhouses instead of chicken houses, the Boles are still dealing with the fallout of running a broiler farm. In 2020, Dale had a heart attack that the first responders didn't think he would survive. The cause: stress-induced heart damage that Paula believes was from their time running the chicken farm. His survival was thanks to "the grace of God," she says.

While the Boles are by no means alone in their concern for the welfare of their animals, Matthews points out that many farmers view it as simply "part of the job." Some situations, however, are so horrible that basically everyone is impacted.

He points to hog farmers during COVID-19. Due to slaughterhouse shutdowns, farmers "had to euthanize pigs [who] were totally healthy." The farmers' job during that time basically became killing pigs and dumping the bodies. They have "nightmares about those kinds of things," says Matthews.

In Whitley's experience, even if poor animal welfare is considered just part of being a livestock farmer, it often contributes to why the farmers he works with want to transition their farms. "They'll name living next to a barn of screaming pigs or chickens [or] picking up dead chickens" as quality of life issues associated with being a farmer, says Whitley.

Compounding the issue is a reluctance to talk about their mental health. Farmers "don't look at it like mental health," says Matthews. "They look at it like mental illness," which makes them reluctant to seek help.

For Paula Boles, their experience has led to a better future, enabling her to help others struggling in her community. She spends her days growing flowers and produce in her chicken sheds turned greenhouses. Of the converted structures she says: "the same greenhouse I used to cry over at night [allows us] to grow...microgreens and bless people."


Grace Hussain wrote this article for Sentient.


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Access to nutritious food can be hard to come by for underserved populations.

A Wisconsin program that relies on contributions from locally based producers serves as a go-between, with the added bonus of a smaller climate impact.

The state's Local Food Purchase Assistance Program is closing in on its second anniversary.

Under the initiative, farmers around Wisconsin are awarded grants to set aside some of their fresh produce and other items that get picked up and distributed to hunger relief sites.

The Wisconsin Farmers Union helps lead the effort, and the organization's Local Foods Organizer Forrest Humphrey said one of the benefits is helping smaller farms expand their markets.

"This guaranteed income has allowed farms to invest in their operations, and do things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to do," said Humphrey, "because we've been able to provide some stability through some unpredictable growing seasons."

And for people seeking help from hunger-fighting groups, their outcomes might improve if food insecurity becomes one less thing to worry about.

Meanwhile, agriculture and the food-production system are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint.

Humphrey said the program allows sites to order food in bulk that doesn't have to travel from other regions or states, potentially reducing transportation emissions linked to supply chains.

Researchers say there's debate over just how effective locally grown food is in reducing emissions, when focusing on how products are delivered.

Still, Humphrey pointed out that a number of the small farms signed up for the program prioritize climate-friendly practices.

"We have producers, for example, who are providing some really, really high-quality grass-fed beef into the program," said Humphrey. "And the reason that they're able to do that is because they have a really sophisticated managed grazing setup on their farms."

The exact climate impact of the program is unclear - but officials say, so far, it has served 70 counties across Wisconsin, with nearly $3 million worth of food delivered.

Organizers are hosting several events this fall to provide technical guidance and other resources as local partners try to sustain these newer, more efficient supply chains.




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Massachusetts fishermen said they are optimistic the next Farm Bill will provide greater support to smaller, community-based fishing fleets.

The bill's framework includes provisions to increase the amount of domestic seafood purchased for federal nutrition programs and creates a special seafood liaison to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

John Pappalardo, CEO of the Cape Cod Fishermen's Alliance, said the liaison could help local fishermen gain access to federal programs geared toward larger farming operations.

"Hopefully we can put somebody in the USDA that talks fish and talks ocean," Pappalardo explained. "Lock some of those opportunities for the smaller food producers like the fishermen on Cape Cod and in the Commonwealth."

The Farm Bill is renewed every five years and Pappalardo said fishing groups have been lobbying to raise the industry's value within the Department of Agriculture. The U.S. currently imports roughly 65% of its seafood.

The Farm Bill remains the largest source of federal funding for America's food producers and Pappalardo observed ensuring initiatives for fishermen in the bill is a bit like "herring pushing upstream, battling a political flow."

He argued it is important local fishermen and the businesses that support them have a level playing field with farmers, ranchers and loggers.

"The United States is divided into eight regions when it comes to fisheries management," Pappalardo pointed out. "We'd like to see each region have an opportunity to participate in the funding and training opportunities that are currently in the Farm Bill for farmers."

Pappalardo wants an expansion of the 2020 Young Fishermen's Development Act in the Farm Bill to ensure the next generation get the training it needs to grow the seafood industry, while preserving the traditions of independent small-boat fisheries supporting communities like on Cape Cod. He said one day perhaps the Farm Bill could even be renamed the "Food Bill."


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Progress on the new Farm Bill remains stalled as members of Congress argue over price increases for commodity crops and proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the latest version of the $1.5 trillion agriculture package.

Hank Graddy, volunteer on the food and agriculture team for the Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club, said even if the bill's future remains uncertain, now is the time for farmers to take advantage of additional funding in the Conservation Title. He noted around $20 billion in conservation money through the Inflation Reduction Act are available to be used now, even if farmers' have not had luck in the past applying for programs.

"The Conservation Title is the part of the Farm Bill that helps prevent soil erosion, attempts to keep animal manure out of our rivers and streams," Graddy outlined. "It attempts to reduce water pollution, it attempts to maintain soil."

The conservation programs provide financial incentives to farmers who plant cover crops, diversify crops, reduce tillage and plant grasslands. They are strategies to help protect natural resources from industrial farming, like Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Such large operations leak substantial amounts of livestock waste into soil, waterways and drinking water, including hormones, nitrates and pathogens like E. coli.

Some House lawmakers want to modify the Conservation Title to incorporate precision agriculture technologies into water conservation and irrigation practices. Graddy believes it would weaken the original goals of the conservation programs, which have greatly benefited Kentucky farmers.

"We need more money in these programs because they help farmers become better farmers," Graddy explained. "And reduce agricultural impact on the environment, and on people downstream."

According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, to date more than 500,000 farmers have participated in conservation programs, with more seeking to participate than there is funding available.


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