Posted on 10/07/2018 8:09:26 AM PDT by huldah1776
snip
Rosmann, an Iowa farmer, is a psychologist and one of the nation’s leading farmer behavioral health experts. He often answers phone calls from those in crisis. And for 40 years, he has worked to understand why farmers take their lives at such alarming rates – currently, higher rates than any other occupation in the United States.
snip
Last year, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that people working in agriculture – including farmers, farm laborers, ranchers, fishers, and lumber harvesters – take their lives at a rate higher than any other occupation. The data suggested that the suicide rate for agricultural workers in 17 states was nearly five times higher compared with that in the general population.
After the study was released, Newsweek reported that the suicide death rate for farmers was more than double that of military veterans…. Rosmann and other experts add that the farmer suicide rate might be higher, because an unknown number of farmers disguise their suicides as farm accidents.
snip
In the 1980s, America’s continuing family farm crisis began. … Loans were called in. Interest rates doubled overnight. Farmers were forced to liquidate their operations and evicted from their land. There were fights at grain elevators, shootings in local banks. The suicide rate soared.
Snip
Rosmann’s program proved so successful that it became the model for a nationwide program called the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). Snip The program, which would have created regional and national helplines and provided counseling for farmers, was estimated to cost the government $18m annually. Rosmann argues that US farmers lost by suicide totals much more than this – in dollars, farmland, national security in the form of food, and the emotional and financial toll on families and entire communities.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Does the article say why? What are the causes? We don’t need more teaser clickbait from the Guardian...
Link to a response article and to a suicide hotline.
“I wrote about farmers’ suicides – and the reaction has been overwhelming” [by citizens, not congress]
“In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.”
White privilege.
It’s not clickbait. It’s a good and thorough article.
It’s The Guardian - Der Strumer for anti-Americans.
The answer is right here in the excerpt, although I don't believe the part about "shootings at local banks". Farming is dangerous, stressful, and difficult to support a family from (note...I was raised on a family farm..I had no interest in farming, but my brother had intended to make agriculture his career...but he finally made the decision to get out and sell out for just the reasons noted).
Debt appears to be a very significant factor.
The CDC report suggested possible causes for the high suicide rate among US farmers, including “social isolation, potential for financial losses, barriers to and unwillingness to seek mental health services (which might be limited in rural areas), and access to lethal means”.
I traveled to Puerto Rico in January a couple of years ago and a US farmers convention was sharing our hotel. they were the nicest guys/families and I’m so sorry to hear this. They educated my daughters about the advances in the farming industry. I guess PR is where much of their research takes place.
Not a lot of future for many of them.
I am a farm kid. I became an engineer. The economies of scale are such that was the only choice I had. My father was a large scale pork producer with 8 to 10,000 head. Now, they don’t return you calls till you have at least 60,000 head under your control.
Sure there is one paragraph for ya.
Rosmann says that several members of the House and Senate – most of them Republicans – “were disingenuous”. In an email, Rosmann wrote, “They promised support to my face and to others who approached them to support the FRSAN, but when it came time to vote … they did not support appropriating money … Often they claimed it was an unnecessary expenditure which would increase the national debt, while also saying healthy farmers are the most important asset to agricultural production.”
It is very informative, and, as others have noted, farming is an occupation with a lot of inherent stress and uncertainty, as well as factors such as social isolation and more difficult access to medical services.
However, the general impression is that the writer believes government can somehow eliminate all these problems.
No, - those are reasons these things happened in the 1980s. I want to know about today’s causes. Some people have already posted the reasons above, thanks.
Trump will be blamed even though farmers have suffered for decades. Globalist want control of all of our wealth, including our land.
In the 1980s, America’s continuing family farm crisis began.
ince the 1980s farm crisis, Rosmann says experts have learned much more about how to support farmers. Confidential crisis communication systems – by telephone or online – are effective, but staff need to be versed in the reality and language of agriculture.
This is from Dec 6, 2017. Just curious as to why it’s being reposted today.
It has to be globull warming. What else could it be.
Commodities are in the gutter.
It’s harvest, and a lot of farmers are looking at their once a year paycheck and thinking “We are not going to be able to cover our living expenses”.
Lots of anger at Trump for the Trade war. Few options. Locally, we had a few suicides. One good thing about about Obama care is that it forced many farm families to have at least one person work for health coverage.
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