Sustainability Isn’t Just About the Land - It’s About the Farmers, Too

Sustainability is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot, but when you stop and ask what it actually means, the answers get pretty fuzzy.

Webster’s definition? “The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.” That’s fine, but it doesn’t even begin to tell the full story when it comes to agriculture.

Sustainability in farming isn’t just about the environment, though that’s obviously a huge piece of it (water, soil, air quality, all of it matters). It’s also about supply chains, economic opportunity, keeping rural communities and schools alive, and maybe most importantly, making sure farming is a way of life that’s actually livable.

The Mental Load Farmers Carry

Farming is a noble profession. It’s fulfilling. It’s rewarding. But it’s also stressful - really stressful. The competition has never been tougher. Farmers are always trying to grow their operation by picking up more acres, but they’re not just competing with other farmers. They’re up against urban expansion, corporate investment groups, and rising land costs. To stay in the game, they have to offer higher rates to buy, rent, or crop share land. That means their margins shrink, so they work harder and longer just to make it all pencil out.

Then there are input costs - seeds, fertilizer, fuel, equipment. Those costs usually lag behind commodity prices, which means even when prices are up, farmers aren’t necessarily making more money. And when prices fall? They get squeezed hard. If you look back over history, this cycle seems to repeat itself every 14-18 years. (Here’s a deep dive if you want to see for yourself: kansascityfed.org).

And those are just the financial pressures.

Farming is a business where so much is out of your control. No amount of planning can change the weather. A dry season can wreck a crop. A wet one can flood a field. A late frost, an early heat wave, a single storm at the wrong time - it can all cost thousands, if not millions.

And then, after months of work, when the crop is finally in the bin, markets dictate what it’s worth. A farmer can do everything right and still lose money.

That kind of uncertainty isn’t just frustrating, it’s exhausting. It wears on people. It impacts relationships. It seeps into family dynamics. And because farming is often a multi-generational business, there’s an added layer of pressure. The weight of keeping a farm going isn’t just about making it through another year, it’s about not being the one who loses what generations before have built.

The Reality of Stress and Mental Health in Farming

Farming has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. That’s not a statistic we talk about enough.

And it’s not just because of financial stress (though that’s a big piece). It’s because, for a lot of farmers, farming isn’t just a job - it’s an identity. When things go wrong, it’s not just a business problem. It feels personal.

And here’s the thing: farmers are resilient. They’re used to toughing it out. They put their heads down and push forward. But that mindset, while great for handling adversity, can also make it harder to reach out when things get overwhelming.

That’s why sustainability in agriculture has to include mental health.

Consumers Have a Role in This, Too

If we truly care about sustainable farming, not just as a buzzword, but as something real, then we have to talk about economics.

Because at the end of the day, farmers are business owners. They can’t just choose to farm more sustainably out of the goodness of their hearts if it doesn’t make financial sense.

And that’s where the rest of us - consumers, food companies, retailers come in.

Farmers need to be incentivized to adopt more sustainable practices. Things like improving soil health, reducing runoff into rivers and streams, and producing healthier food take investment. They take different techniques, different inputs, sometimes even different equipment. And that means there has to be financial support along the way.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are in a tough spot. They have shareholders to answer to, so they can’t just take the full hit of compensating farmers for sustainable practices out of their own margins. Some of that burden has to be passed along.

And that means we - as consumers - have to be willing to put our money where our mouth is.

I’m not talking about a massive price jump. I’m talking about a few extra cents here and there to support products that were grown in a way that improves the land, keeps rivers and streams clean, and helps farmers stay in business.

This isn’t a debate about global warming (I’ll leave that to others). This is about basic, tangible things: healthy soil, clean water, better food, and keeping rural communities alive.

A More Sustainable Future Starts With People

When we talk about making farming sustainable, we need to be talking about more than soil health and input costs. We need to be talking about farmer health, too.

That means:

• Making sure farmers have access to resources that help them navigate stress and mental health challenges.
• Encouraging open conversations so that people don’t feel like they have to just “tough it out” alone.
• Building economic models that actually support farm families long-term, not just in the good years, but in the tough ones too.
• And as consumers, being willing to pay a little more for food that’s produced with sustainability in mind, knowing that it’s an investment in the land, in communities, and in the people growing our food.

Because here’s the truth: If farming isn’t sustainable for the people doing it, then it isn’t sustainable at all.

This Is Core to Our Mission at Globally Responsible Production (GRP) and Parcel.ag

We believe that sustainability only works if it’s sustainable for everyone. That means farmers have to be incentivized for positive environmental impact, and consumers have to be willing to support those efforts at the checkout.

The reality is, sustainability doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes the entire system - farmers, CPG brands, retailers, and consumers - working together. If we get this right, we can create a food system that’s good for the land, good for business, and good for the people growing our food.

This is just the start of the conversation. In future posts, I’ll dig into some of the ways we can actually build a more sustainable system for farmers and rural communities. But for now, I’d love to hear from you:

How do you define sustainability in farming? And what do you think we need to be doing better?