With on-going challenges related to public trust, animal welfare, mortality, and longevity, there is the added challenge that Canadian farmers experience higher levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout, as well as lower resilience than the general population.
There may also be associations between human and animal well-being, as documented on swine and dairy farms. The underlying principle of the “One Welfare” approach is that there are “interrelationships between animal welfare, human well-being, and the physical and social environment”.
Although farmers and farmworkers care for their animals daily and have a great impact on animal welfare, their perspectives and attitudes often go underrepresented. Therefore, one of the best ways to improve animal welfare may be to improve the well-being of the people working on farms.
This would also contribute to improving job satisfaction, retention, and social sustainability of farms, as well as our understanding of the bidirectional relationship between high welfare systems and stockspeople.
Furthermore, as the industry transitions to group housing, we must understand the experiences and outcomes for both people and animals. This research will help us to understand the relationships between industry practices and farmer mental health, which will help further target programs to improve farmer mental health, and therefore, animal health and welfare.
