TerriDean, there's a patch coming out soon which will help with the ornery behaviour of the farmers...in the meantime, a couple of things:
Try not to grow your population so fast it outgrows your capacity to feed.
Also, if you're going to be away for a while, either pause your game or leave it on 1/2 speed
You may need to check on the health of your builders and researchers more regularly, and switch them out to farming for a bit if they're getting too badly injured - before they get seriously weakened