Recently, stressors impacting LGBTQ farmers have been addressed in the literature. In one study, LGBTQ farmers reported feeling uncomfortable as they tried to build relationships that could help them be successful (Leslie, 2017). Another study identified uncertainty, fear, and isolation among this subgroup of farmers and strategies to overcome barriers such as explaining their busi ness as a “chosen family farm” (Hoffelmeyer, 2019). LGBTQ farmers and farm workers worked with others like themselves as a support network.
Few videos about LGBTQ farmers exist. A 2019, 12-minute documentary from the United Kingdom titled, Landline, includes voices of gay farmers who called into a hotline answered by a retired chaplain. The farmers tell of their experiences and lives of isolation, secrecy, and shame.
VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGhQFROrZZA
Extension Professionals. Extension professionals also experience ordinary and/or extraordinary stressors. The Journal of Extension contains many studies of work-life stressors among this population.
A 2020 study of 1,393 Extension professionals conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found they were experiencing high levels of stress and having difficulty balancing their work and life needs (Israel et al., 2020). The majority (55%) of the participants were county or regionally-based educators; 20%, state specialists; the rest were administrators, staff, and others. They represented all program areas with 49% in agriculture; the remainder in youth development (35%), family and consumer science (26%), community development (14%), forestry (6%), energy and sustainability (5.1%), fisheries and marine (3.2%), and miscellaneous/other program assignments. A majority (56%) of the participants reported that their clientele was exhibiting moderate or significant symptoms of stress. As COVID-19 disrupted their ordinary working conditions and that of many of their farming population clientele, Extension professionals may have felt not only their own stress but that of their clientele (Sampson et al., 2020).
30
Powered by FlippingBook