“So God made a (mythical, larger-than-life) Farmer” 

By L. Lanie Doerr, LPC, MA 

10/1/25 

Farm Culture as a Risk for Farmer Suicide 

I have a bone to pick with “So God Made a Farmer.”  The late Paul Harvey’s beautiful poem is still used in advertising geared toward farmers, & while I admire this poem – I think it's time we evaluated how Farm Culture (which is represents) influences the psychology of farmers & farm families.   

Read the full poem here: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/paulharveysogodmadeafarmer.htm 

 Farm culture is my culture.  Like any culture it has its own norms, characteristics, topics of conversation, mannerisms, food, clothing, & worldview.  We absorb the culture we’re raised in like we learn our language.  We’re immersed in it.  It is so natural to us that we’re usually not aware of it & the fact that it is a sub-culture of the greater American culture.   

So, I grew up on the farm and spent thousands of hours on the tractor as a kid.  All I could consistently pick up on the radio was 1210 KGYN – an AM radio station out of Guymon, Oklahoma.  In the morning, the show was the Coffee Shop with 2 old men chit-chatting about local stuff.  Ok, they may not have been old, but to a teenage girl in the 80’s it seemed “Like, totally boorriinngg!”  Around noon was the weather & markets – which I gave not one hoot about.  Afternoon brought classic country music which was OK – I didn’t understand at the time just how great some of that music was.  But then in the middle of the afternoon was Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” the highlight of my radio listening experience out in the field.  I can still remember getting goosebumps sometimes as he revealed the rest of the story.  So God Made a Farmer is, to me, a poetic masterpiece; however,  

The farmer in this poem is: 

a mythical being, 

a perfectly ripened image of resolute manhood who has not lost his sense of gentle, childlike wonder at the world around him, 

And larger than life . . . while  

the farmers I’ve ever known were just people.  

Research Support 

This poem represents much of Farm Culture.  Yes, farm families have a distinct culture, & suicide risks resulting from that culture were identified in a meta-analysis by Purc-Stephenson, Doctor, & Keehn and published in the research journal Rural & Remote Health in 2023.  I was very excited to read this study.      

There is an appalling lack of research about this topic in the US.  Australia has a lot more research studies about farmer mental health & farmer suicide than we do. Even the excellent research article I’ve just mentioned received no funding.   

A common theme in good mental health treatment is bringing subconscious ideas and behaviors up to conscious awareness and thinking critically about them.  Is this good for me?  Is this harming me?  I propose becoming aware of elements of our farm culture that may be damaging.   

My model for reducing farmer suicide risk lists 3 risk factors: 

• Farmer Identity 

• Fishbowl Living 

• Family Farm Culture 

Each of these describes pieces of farm culture that may be harming farmers’ mental health.   I also provide protective factors & practical treatment strategies for each of these 3 risk factors.   

Soil Analogy 

My bachelor’s degree is in biological sciences from Oklahoma State.  Let’s consider the human body, which contains trillions of cells but the amount of bacteria (both helpful & harmful) in & on an average human body exceed the number of our own cells by 10 to 1!   Our health is greatly influences by the presence of helpful or probiotic bacteria:  whether is on your skin or the flora of the gut.  

The health of the soil is similar:  we don’t want soil to be sterile.  Healthy soil bacteria create conditions that are favorable to growth.  Like crop rotation promotes a soil environment that resists disease or viruses, we are not presuming we can eliminate all harmful elements in the soil, but we are coping with their presence by promoting an environment where the healthy bacteria can thrive.   Protective factors for mental health are how we wage war against the risk foctors.

The standard advice to farmers has been good:  healthy diet, spend time with friends & family, manage stress, & so on.  What I believe will be useful about my cultural and identity model is that it will challenge farmers to face and uproot aspects of their own identity, & all the unspoken rules of farm culture that may be damaging their mental health.  We spend most of our time on auto-pilot.  Noticing something true about yourself and bringing it up to conscious awareness to examine it is critical.  Once you have it, you can make decisions about this subconscious driver in your life.