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MONTREAL — Cyberbullying by vegan activists is a growing source of stress for farmers and agricultural producers who already face significant mental health challenges linked to the job, a farmer and a psychologist working in the agriculture sector say.

Farmer Mylene Begin, who co-owns Princy farm in Quebec’s Abitibi-Temiscamingue region, created an Instagram account a few years ago to both document daily life on the farm and combat what she calls “disinformation and the negative image,” of agriculture. Today, she describes herself as the target of bullying from vegan activists.

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Begin recently changed the settings on her account after having to get up an hour early to delete more than 100 negative messages a day — some of which made her fear for her safety, she said.

“There was one that took screenshots of my photos, he shared them on his feed after adding knives to my face and writing the word ‘psychopath’ on my forehead,” the 26-year-old said. “It made me so scared.”

She said some of the messages compared artificial insemination of cows to rape, while others used the words “kidnapping” and “murder” to describe the work of cattle breeders.

The problem, she said, is that many city people don’t understand agriculture but become severe critics nonetheless.

“It affects you psychologically. It’s very heavy even if we try not to read (the comments),” she said. “The population has become disconnected from agriculture. We all have a grandfather who did it, but today in the eyes of many people we’re rapists and poisoners, and that’s what hurts me the most.”

Pierrette Desrosiers, a psychologist who works in the agricultural sector, said bullying on the part of hardcore vegan activists on social media is a new source of stress for a growing number of farmers.