NEW YORK, N.Y. (RFD-TV NEWS) — Rupa Mehta did not grow up in agriculture, but a growing interest in where food comes from led her and her husband to leave New York City and immerse themselves in rural life.
The filmmaker, educator, and entrepreneur moved with her husband to an eight-acre farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, beginning a more than five-year journey exploring the people and challenges behind the food system.
That work has included a focus on farm mental health and safety, including the six-part television series Perfect Sundays and the award-winning film Silo, which examines grain bin safety.
Finding the Story Behind Agriculture
Mehta said food connects everyone, regardless of whether they live in an urban, suburban, or rural community.
“The food is universal, and knowing where it comes from seems like an important thing that every urbanite, suburbanite, and rural person should know about,” Mehta said.
Her husband, a native New Yorker, became more aware of the challenges facing farmers after traveling outside the city. The experience eventually led the couple to move to Pennsylvania and begin telling stories about agriculture.
Their work eventually focused on the mental health crisis in dairy farming.
Using Storytelling to Talk About Mental Health
Mehta said conversations about mental health can be difficult, particularly when farmers and ranchers are not accustomed to talking openly about the emotional side of their work.
She believes storytelling can create a different entry point into those conversations.
“Stories are universal,” Mehta said. “You kind of suspend your intellect, and you just go fully with your heart.”
She said viewers who see themselves reflected in a story can begin to process deeper emotions in ways that may differ from traditional mental health resources.
Perfect Sundays follows a dairy farm family facing a series of challenges, including the death of the family’s husband and father by suicide.
The six-part series follows matriarch Marla Weeks and her family as they navigate grief, faith, their relationship with the farm and their community, while considering whether to add ice cream production as a value-added business.
Mehta said she hopes the series can be both healing and revealing for farmers across the country.
Lessons From Farmers
Mehta’s work has also given her a different perspective on what it takes to feed a community and the world.
Her award-winning film Silo focuses on grain bin safety, another issue where storytelling can help audiences understand the risks farmers face.
“I think I’ve really realized it as a whole family. We really appreciate that feeding the world does come at a cost,” Mehta said.
That perspective has also changed some of the choices Mehta and her family make in their own lives, including buying products locally and supporting local dairy farms and butchers.
She said slowing down and understanding the process behind food can create a greater appreciation for the people involved.
“We live in the Amazon world where, with very quick decisions, you can get something to your doorstep,” Mehta said. “And to slow anything down, that makes you appreciate presence, moment, people. It’s valuable.”
Creating New Conversations
Mehta said one of the biggest gaps she sees between the public perception of farming and the reality farmers experience is the lack of conversation between people who live and work in different communities.
She said conversations among people who already share similar perspectives can sometimes reinforce existing views without moving the discussion forward.
“I just think the bridging, the divide of who’s having the conversation,” Mehta said.
She hopes Perfect Sundays can encourage different groups, including farmers, cooperatives, urban residents and suburban residents, to approach agricultural issues from new perspectives.
Mehta said narrative storytelling can create a different kind of conversation than a traditional resource or informational campaign.
“I think when you have the catharsis of looking at a six-part TV series, I think you can talk about things in a different way,” she said.
Mehta Joins Dirt Diaries
Mehta is featured on this week’s Dirt Diaries episode with host Kirbe Schnoor, where the two discuss her work, agriculture, and the stories behind the food system.
Mehta said she enjoyed the conversation with Schnoor and hopes listeners will take away a deeper understanding of the people and challenges behind agriculture.
