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Why are America's farmers killing themselves in record numbers?
The Guardian ^ | Dec 6, 2017 | Debbie Weingarten

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: depression; farmers; stress; suicide
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To: huldah1776

They are bored out of their gord and don’t have a head for if and really are not made of very good sfalk.


41 posted on 10/07/2018 10:05:27 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
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To: huldah1776

This is a good article but it got one glaring fact wrong.

I know the facts because we are a farming family and Jimmy Carter was a disaster for farmers despite being a “farmer” himself
The farming crisis didn’t start in the eighties, it started in the seventies under Jimmy Carter.(He was playing at farmer, didn’t earn his living off farming, big difference. Used framing as a tax “write off” )
Gas prices and rationing, price controls(A Nixon product), inflation(Ford)the embargo of the Russian wheat market and a few things else that made the seventies THEN the eighties Hell for farmers.

I suspect the writer starts this in the “eighties” because people link this to the reign of Reagan.

Otherwise. Good article


42 posted on 10/07/2018 10:12:36 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Those who turn their arms in for plowshares will be doing the plowing for those who didn't.")
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To: redgolum

I understand what you mean.

Earl Butz, Agriculture Secretary under Nixon, then Ford(Famous for his racist joke about black men) when asked about the effeects of the Nixon policies on small farmers retorted :

“Get Big or Get Out”

I spit every time I hear his name.


43 posted on 10/07/2018 10:16:41 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Those who turn their arms in for plowshares will be doing the plowing for those who didn't.")
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To: TexasGator

Isolation I can believe, pesticides is doubtful.

Farming is a lonely profession and the weight is all on your shoulders. And the pay is lousy.

Not meant for everyone.


44 posted on 10/07/2018 10:19:08 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Those who turn their arms in for plowshares will be doing the plowing for those who didn't.")
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To: huldah1776
If we look at how the VA is handling veteran suicide we know that depending on the gov’t won’t work.

The best program for a farmer is getting good prices for his hard earned crop.

Would be the best salve the government could do for him. Sitting in a circle listening to other farmer's woes is something they already do at the market.

Good prices are the solution so he can pay his bills, buy his kids some Christmas presents and pay his taxes.

Trump is working hard on that.
45 posted on 10/07/2018 10:25:37 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Those who turn their arms in for plowshares will be doing the plowing for those who didn't.")
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To: nwrep

Got a study from 2016 (I added breaks)

Occupational groups with higher suicide rates might be at risk for a number of reasons, including job-related isolation and demands, stressful work environments, and work-home imbalance, as well as socioeconomic inequities, including lower income, lower education level, and lack of access to health services (7,8).

Previous research suggests that farmers’ chronic exposure to pesticides might affect the neurologic system and contribute to depressive symptoms. Other factors that might contribute to suicide among farmers include 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(8).

Construction workers might be at higher risk because of financial and interpersonal concerns related to lack of steady employment, and fragmented community or isolation (9).

It has been hypothesized that one possible factor contributing to higher suicide risk among workers in installation, maintenance, and repair occupations might be long-term exposure to solvents that can cause neurotoxic damage, including memory impairment and depressive symptoms (8).

Research has suggested that higher suicide rates among police are related to stressors including exposure to traumatic, violent, and lethal situations; work overload; shift work; and access to lethal means (6,8).

Females in protective service occupations might also experience additional stressors in these traditionally male-dominated occupations (6).

Of note, while management occupations had the 10th highest rate of suicide, they accounted for the second largest percentage of suicide deaths overall; therefore, it is important to target prevention strategies to managers as well.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6525a1.htm#contribAff


46 posted on 10/07/2018 10:25:39 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: huldah1776

I was wondering about the pesticides...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-rates-of-suicide-depression-linked-to-farmers-use-of-pesticides/


47 posted on 10/07/2018 10:28:13 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: radiohead
Note that I never said the number of such incidents was zero.

I'm sure there have been isolated cases. But like school shootings, farm-related violence incidents get wide coverage exactly because they are rare (given the relatively small number of farmers, they pretty much "have" to be rare) in a country of 300,000,000 population.

The media is quite fond of purveying isolated occurrences taken out of statistical context.

48 posted on 10/07/2018 10:28:42 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: radiohead

Thank you for that links. Now I will know the keywords for more digging.


49 posted on 10/07/2018 10:29:37 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: nwrep
I want to know about today’s causes.

Bad crop prices, an indifferent or worse, an incompetent government. Everything else is "baked in the pie"

Nothing is more depressing than working the whole year and see you hard work get a fraction of what you expected to get. The your government comes calling for what's left of your income...
50 posted on 10/07/2018 10:30:00 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Those who turn their arms in for plowshares will be doing the plowing for those who didn't.")
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To: PIF

very sad, but true. Found out a little bit ago that the cling wrap clingy stuff is a carcinogen. I LOVE that stuff! LOL


51 posted on 10/07/2018 10:32:18 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: huldah1776

Scientific American ceased to be a reliable source in the mid-1970’s (when I dropped my subscription). Today, they are just another member of the “fake news” media, quoting a certain segment of the liberal party line.


52 posted on 10/07/2018 10:34:05 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: nwrep
EPA, BLM and high taxes that prevent you from making necessary improvements to your operation.

At one point they went so far as to say that if you painted your house the taxes should go up.

A regular Morton's Fork.

53 posted on 10/07/2018 10:35:16 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea is getting cold.)
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To: TexasGator

Thanks for the heads up. I had wondered about the pesticides and did a search finding the same study. I usually go to study source links but missed that one! losing my edge.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6525a1.htm


54 posted on 10/07/2018 10:35:27 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: PIF

I was just looking up your SC case and knowing that they take only cases that will support a lot of citizens, realized that the pesticides the farmers use DO effect billions? of people. Just like the hormones and stuff for cattle providing billions of hamburgers are very important, too.


55 posted on 10/07/2018 10:39:13 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: Wonder Warthog

That was what I found when I was first wondering and then found the study plus a Freeper reply included it which I had missed. One word links are not good for me. My mom was a fantastic proof reader, but I tend to be a bit dyslexic. Probably why I didn’t get that job at the post office back in the 70’s. :)


56 posted on 10/07/2018 10:51:33 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: JME_FAN

The gov’t, cabal, and deep state are ignoring the signs from our blatantly obvious source. Thanks for the extra info.


57 posted on 10/07/2018 10:53:43 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: Tax-chick
Debt appears to be a very significant factor.

Debt is always a major factor. And a good deal of that is caused by the government, state, local and federal.

A few years ago our state government decided that feral hogs were a problem. Now they can be but there is no problem with them in our state. But rather then being sensible and say that any hog found wandering around loose would be destroyed they, in their vast wisdom decided to go after the guys who were raising heritage breed hogs.

They ordered the hogs destroyed.

Now mind you, these hogs were not causing any problems as long as they were in their pens and the farmers were careful to keep them in the pens. Even one hog represented a major chuck of income lost if they got away.

They also wrote the law so badly that every single hog in the state fell under the destroy order.

Last I heard they were still fighting it out in court but this is the kind of thing that leads to both stress and debt.

Long term planning is a problem as well because you never know what new regulation you are going to have to contend with next. We are a very small operation and still every year we have to deal with or find a way around some "bright new idea" from some nitwit who does not know the well from the jakes.

58 posted on 10/07/2018 10:54:18 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea is getting cold.)
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To: RedMonqey

hmmm. I’ll have to back farther then when digging.


59 posted on 10/07/2018 10:59:00 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: ptsal

Thank you for that info. Will look into it.


60 posted on 10/07/2018 11:00:16 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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