{"id":25705,"date":"2025-09-12T14:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T21:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/?p=25705"},"modified":"2025-09-12T15:14:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T22:14:14","slug":"farmers-are-breaking-under-the-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/2025\/09\/12\/farmers-are-breaking-under-the-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers are Breaking Under the Weight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>\u201cThis is about taking care of the people who take care of us.\u201d \u2014 Don McMoran<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In the words of Steven Pressfield, \u201cInternal resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will deceive and fabricate; it will seduce you.\u201d But in agriculture, Resistance isn\u2019t abstract \u2014 it\u2019s real. It comes in the form of drought, debt, silence, and shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wenatcheeworld.com\/news\/local\/you-can-have-a-great-crop-and-in-20-minutes-nothing-farm-stress-crisis-deepens\/article_ad0dc975-cb3e-421f-af90-cfdb8d8fec93.html\"><em>The Wenatchee World<\/em>&nbsp;published a deeply human story by Ren\u00e9e D\u00edaz<\/a>&nbsp;on the&nbsp;<em>farm stress crisis<\/em>&nbsp;in Washington. The story lifts the veil on a truth many prefer not to look at: that our food comes at a cost far beyond the grocery aisle \u2014 a cost paid in long hours, uncertainty, and emotional isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the center of this vital piece is Don McMoran \u2014 a fourth-generation farmer, Director of the WSU Skagit County Extension, and principal investigator behind their farm stress program, launched in collaboration with the Department of Health and WSDA. Don\u2019s message is clear: Farmers are breaking under the weight. And yet, they continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This program is not charity. It is&nbsp;<em>strategy<\/em>. Free counseling. Financial coaching. Peer-support training. It\u2019s not about weakness \u2014 it\u2019s about&nbsp;<em>endurance<\/em>. About ensuring those who feed us don\u2019t suffer in silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To every farmer, grower, and worker who\u2019s ever held on when the forecast turned, when the numbers didn\u2019t pencil out, or when the stress became a storm of its own \u2014 this is for you. And to Don, for leading with purpose: we see you, we thank you, and we stand with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wenatcheeworld.com\/news\/local\/you-can-have-a-great-crop-and-in-20-minutes-nothing-farm-stress-crisis-deepens\/article_ad0dc975-cb3e-421f-af90-cfdb8d8fec93.html\">Read the Wenatchee World story here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThis is about taking care of the people who take care of us.\u201d \u2014 Don McMoran In the words of Steven Pressfield, \u201cInternal resistance will tell you anything to keep [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":25706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_external_link":"","_expiration_date":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25705"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25711,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25705\/revisions\/25711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}