Indiana farmer Ed Bell has a unique story of survival and success. He has been teaching others about the importance of overcoming the worst that life can throw at you—after he and his wife Debbie went through a horrific event that changed their lives more than 40 years ago.
“When we were in our early twenties, we survived a violent crime attack and I was shot and paralyzed,” says Bell. It had happened in late summer of 1982. Both he and Debbie were attacked by her jealous ex-boyfriend, who shot Ed several times with the intention of killing them both. In fact, Ed nearly died from the attack.
The man who attacked Ed and Debbie was later convicted and sent to prison. But that attack left Ed severely injured.
“I have a spinal cord injury. I’m paralyzed from about the collarbones down—so, from the armpits down.”
Ed came home from the hospital in a 28-pound stainless steel wheelchair that could barely maneuver through his family’s home—much less their family farm.
“I had to redefine success and learn to farm again,” Ed says. “I was a hog farmer at the time when I got hurt, but always had a desire to do retail vegetables and retail fruit. The hogs weren’t real accessible, so I switched over to a strawberries.”
Ed and his wife have owned and operated Bell’s Strawberry Farm near Hagerstown since 1985. He says modifications were made to his equipment that allowed him the opportunity to continue to farm. He says it wasn’t until he started farming again that he heard of a program based out of Purdue University that was helping disabled farmers get back to work.
“A couple of neighbors and I had adapted one of my tractors and I thought I was the only guy in America that was farming from a wheelchair,” says Ed. “It almost hurt my pride a little bit when I found out now there were a whole bunch of disabled farmers across the country just like me—and with different kinds of disabilities too, like vision and hearing loss and lots of amputees.”
That’s when Ed says he connected with that program at Purdue, which is now called The National AgrAbility Project.
“I found out about AgrAbility because my family was desperate to find anything that there was available to help me,” says Ed. “My mother-in-law picked up a brochure from Breaking New Ground—the previous name for the AgrAbility program at Purdue. She gave it to me and showed me there are other farmers with disabilities. I don’t her I didn’t need that. You know, my male ego is as big a problem as my paralysis. I started looking at it and later attended a conference. I met other guys like me and I thought it is kind of dumb to reinvent the wheel when there are things out there and connecting farmers with disabilities with each other and sharing technology to make their lives easier.”
Ed says The National AgrAbility Project has been an extremely valuable tool for him and his farming operation.
“They are a resource center that has a catalog of equipment that’s been modified or that’s available for all different kinds of disabilities,” according to Ed. “They have resources available for all different types of disabilities. They have also conferences, which is where the true value is. When you meet other farmers with disabilities, you’ll learn it’s not just my burden, but other people have been down this road and I can learn from them.”
Ed says using the equipment modifications from AgrAbility and having the ability to own and operate a strawberry farm with his wife, has given him, and many others like him, the opportunity to continuing pushing forward.
“If I hadn’t continued with farming and doing the things I’d always done and learn to do them in a different way, or if I’d have gone straight into a nursing home and on the government tax dollars, what would that have cost society? What would that have cost me and my mental health? It makes a lot of sense to just figure out a way to remove barriers—or to be able to plow around the barriers—if someone becomes disabled or has a disability.”
Ed also says being able to open up about his mental health and stress over the years has been a huge help.
“I had five minutes of a pretty intense war that nearly took my life and my wife’s life,” says Ed. “I can’t help but relive it over and over many times. But, there’s a difference between me owning it and it owning me.”
Ed encourages other farmers to open up about the stress that is impacting them and their lives—and seek out solutions from others, including the Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team.
“I can’t speak for every guy or woman out there in agriculture, but for me, it seems like my male pride and my male ego was the biggest part of my disability,” Ed says. “I had to learn to humble myself and overcome those things because common sense tells me that it is really foolish to try to reinvent the wheel when there are people out there who have already solved problems for you. There are also resources available—there is technology available—there are other people you can talk to who have already been down this road and figured it out, so you’d be smart to pay attention to them—not only for you, but for your farming or ranching operation. Be brave and search out solutions to your problems.”
To learn more about Bell’s Strawberry Farm near Hagerstown, visit EatMoreStrawberries.com.
To learn more about the National AgrAbility Project, visit AgrAbility.org.
To learn more about Purdue Extension Farm Stress Team, visit extension.purdue.edu/farmstress.
If you or someone you know is currently experiencing thoughts of suicide, or a mental health or substance use crisis, please call 988 to reach Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and speak with a trained crisis specialist 24/7.
Click BELOW to hear C.J. Miller’s news report and interview with Indiana farmer Ed Bell, who shares his story of survival and success.
