[nwrep]

Does the article say why? What are the causes? We don’t need more teaser clickbait from the Guardian...

[huldah1776]

It’s not clickbait. It’s a good and thorough article.

[Wonder Warthog]

"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 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).

[LouAvul]

Does the article say why? What are the causes?

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”.

[unixfox]

It has to be globull warming. What else could it be.

[Bonemaker]

Same reason other men do.

[TexasGator]

The study they link lists pesticides #1 followed by isolation.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

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.

[Cloverfarm]

I can tell you ... Hubs busted his hump for years working for the family ... it’s exhaustion, and an honor-shame culture. The elders might have bought the farm when crop prices calculated for inflation were 2x or 3x what they are now ... same for milk and livestock ... and the whole farm cost about as much as a McMansion now. We farmers got more and more efficient and farmers got lower and lower prices. Land prices went up to the point an ordinary family farm would cost literally millions of dollars to buy based on crop and livestock prices that have been flat to down for years, and inputs sky rocketed. So the elders gave us everything except a good economy ... you walk out and see empty barns, rusting machinery, weeds choking the barn yard ... the remainining elders give you hell about it and you remember the good old days and eyes fill wiht tears missing the elders who have gone on ... if we were not Christians, and were not blessed to live in an area with lots of jobs, that could have been us.