This has been a big month for us, for you...we brought you our first series and we couldn't be more excited about how it turned out. We shared our own whys, we brought on a farmer who shared her own struggles, and we spoke with an incredible mental health professional who helped us bust down myths and stigmas and taught us that it's compassion and grace that matter the most. This week we say thank you for your courage in talking to us, sharing your own stories, and thinking about what is next in this conversation. We commit to you ongoing episodes talking about mental health, and the launch of our mental health resources page on www.millennialag.com. We cannot say thank you enough to you for listening, for reaching out with messages of love, joy, support, encouragement, and curiosity. You made us brave enough to start the conversation and you, our dear listeners, picked it up right from where we stopped. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
This week, we were honored to be joined by Dr. Nora Feldpausch, a board certified psychiatrist, mom, and dairywoman. Nora has many years of experience helping people through their mental health journeys. She lays out what mental illness really is and maybe more importantly, what it isn’t. She shares how we can help ourselves and each other (hint: grace), how compassion for self and others is the key to navigating mental health struggles, and brings love and joy to a topic that can be very hard to talk openly about. She talks about how important it is to build a team of professionals while you’re seeking help for mental health challenges, and breaks down what each of those professionals looks like. Dr. Feldpausch hits this episode out of the park, and we’re so excited to bring this third installment in our rural mental health series to you. Dr. Feldpausch shared the following resources for those seeking help with mental health: https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI National Alliance on Mental Illness - this is a great place to start if you want more info on support for yourself or a loved one who is suffering with a mental illness - lots of links to good information on diagnosis, treatment and support. https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ 1-800-273-TALK National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - they also have a link to chat online on their website. www.SAMSHA.gov SAMHSA Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - is a good place to start if you are looking for statistics/information on mental illness. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2020-national-directory-mental-health-treatment-facilities This is a list of federal, state and local public and private facilities that provide mental health treatment. https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdhs/find-behavioral-health-help a link to state of Colorado behavioral health resources/services - something similar exists in all states - consider going to your state website and searching for "behavioral health".
This week, in the second episode of our series on mental health, we're joined by a Montana farmer who's walking the mental health path. Michelle Erickson Jones, a fourth generation farmer farming multiple crops and maintaining a cow/calf operation with her husband, has real world experience with anxiety and depression. She talks with Millennial Ag about her experience, how she realized she needed help, and the many struggles rural populations face in trying to find help with mental health care. She has some great policy proposals on how to address these access to care issues, and her refreshing honesty and openness break the mental health conversation wide open. Please listen in as we continue talking about one of the hardest topics out there. We're real, we're raw, we are Millennial Ag.
With all the upheaval happening in the beef industry right now, Millennial Ag is excited to bring you our first bonus episode. Cevin Jones and Jared Brackett, both cattlemen with decades of experience from Idaho, join us to discuss the so-called "shortages" in the beef supply chain, why the process has bottle-necked during the pandemic, and what this situation means for consumers. They also shed light on some of the policy proposals that are floating around that are taking advantage of the fear and uncertainty of the times, and why those proposals just won't work. Listen in for some great insight into the disruption of the beef industry, and why in the end, the supply chain is truly secure and Americans will continue to enjoy the world's best and safest beef.
In this first episode on our May Mental Health Month Series, Katharine and Valene get real and raw. Both having dealt with various mental health issues, and the stigmas that surround them, the ladies of Millennial Ag bring you this series not just because May is Mental Health Month, but because they truly believe this is one of the issues in agriculture that just gets glossed over. They share parts of their own mental health journeys, their own “whys” for doing this series, and lay out where the month will take us. We invite you into a very vulnerable episode to hear our take on mental health, and to hopefully join ranks with us in combating this silent disease that we can let break us, or make us.
It is a consensus that Mental Health is one of the most unacknowledged issue in agriculture. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Millennial Ag is bringing you our very first series. We dive into why we care, how we can help, how we can break the stigma, and provide resources to anyone that may need them. We are real, we are raw, we are Millennial Ag.
This week Millennial Ag is joined by JW Wood, a feedyard manager in Idaho. Animal Protein has been in the news this week, with Tyson's CEO taking out full page ads in metropolitan newspapers warning of a protein shortage coming to America. we get the straight story from JW, some background on what's happening in the supply chain and reassurance that America's farmers and ranchers are still producing food for the American people. Join us this week as we delve into how the American beef supply chain has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
This week, Millennial Ag heads into unfamiliar territory. Yes, we're still talking about the coronavirus, but we're joined by two very special guests in unique situations. Derek Orsenigo and Brittany H. Lee join us from Florida to discuss their perspectives from specialty crop vantage points. Brittany gives us the lowdown on the Florida blueberry situation, while Derek shares how his leafy green, herb and sweet corn operations are struggling. This glimpse into a smaller but highly specialized sector of agriculture is fascinating, and the struggles they are facing due tot he pandemic are no less severe than more traditional agriculture sectors. Tune into this week's episode - you don't want to miss it.
This week, we are joined by an incredible guest with some awesome insights into current consumer buying behavior. Janette Barnard has a deep background in the animal protein and agriculture supply chain arenas. We discuss why consumers are opting for more traditional protein sources, and leaving plant-based alternatives on the shelves. Janette takes us down a path of talking about how the agriculture supply chain is inflexible, but why that isn’t necessarily a bad thing (at least in non-pandemic times), how the alternative protein business may actually be more adapted to scaling up and down quickly, and what all these sudden changes mean for the face of our industry as we know it. She gets us really excited about the possibilities coming wide open for direct to consumer marketing, and shares insights of what this kind of sudden onslaught of innovation could mean for agricultural producers. This is one episode you don’t want to miss - fast paced and fun, Janette Barnard hits this week’s topic out of the park.
Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on American health and the economy, and agriculture unfortunately is no exception. Among the hardest hit are our nation’s dairy farmers. While store shelves and food banks sit empty of nature’s most nearly perfect food, dairy producers across the country are literally dumping milk down the drain. This week, we’re joined by two dairy-derived Millennials. Hank and Katy DeVries, siblings from a dairy in Southern Idaho share their on-the-ground experiences with dumping their family’s livelihood and hard work straight down the pipes. Hank talks about what it’s like to literally watch a day’s hard work disappear before his eyes without hope for compensation, while Katy talks about her efforts to try and provide a shot of adrenaline to the industry locally. Problems have piled on top of problems for dairy farmers, who haven’t experienced a year of black ink since 2014. Coronavirus is snowballing the bad effects of years of bad prices, but our guests display agriculturists’ eternal optimism by showing where the light can still be found, even in times of crisis and loss.