Posted on 06/27/2018 1:14:02 AM PDT by gattaca
"Think about trying to live today on the income you had 15 years ago." That's how agriculture expert Chris Hurt describes the plight facing U.S. farmers today.
The unequal economy that's emerged over the past decade, combined with patchy access to health care in rural areas, have had a severe impact on the people growing America's food. Recent data shows just how much. Farmers are dying by suicide at a higher rate than any other occupational group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The suicide rate in the field of farming, fishing and forestry is 84.5 per 100,000 people -- more than five times that of the population as a whole. That's even as the nation overall has seen an increase in suicide rates over the last 30 years.
The CDC study comes with a few caveats. It looked at workers over 17 different states, but it left out some major agricultural states, like Iowa. And the occupational category that includes these workers includes small numbers of workers from related occupational groups, like fishing and forestry. (However, agricultural workers make up the vast majority of the "farming, fishing and forestry" occupational group.)
However, the figures in the CDC study mirror other recent findings. Rates of suicide have risen fastest, and are highest, in rural areas, the CDC found in a different study released earlier this month. Other countries have seen this issue, too -- including India, where 60,000 farmer suicides have been linked to climate change.
In the U.S., several longtime farm advocates say today's crisis mirrors one that happened in the 1980s, when many U.S. farmers struggled economically, with an accompanying spike in farmer suicides.
"The farm crisis was so bad, there was a terrible outbreak of suicide and depression," said Jennifer Fahy, communications director with Farm Aid, a group founded in 1985 that advocates for farmers. Today, she said, "I think it's actually worse."
"We're hearing from farmers on our hotline that farmer stress is extremely high," Fahy said. "Every time there's more uncertainty around issues around the farm economy is another day of phones ringing off the hook."
Finances are a major reason. Since 2013, farm income has been dropping steadily, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This year, the average farm's income is projected to be 35 percent below its 2013 level.
"The current incomes we've seen for the last three years ... have been about like farm incomes from early in this century," said Hurt, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University in Indiana.
Farmers are also at the mercy of elements outside their direct control, from extreme weather events that threaten crops to commodity prices that offer less for farm goods than it costs to produce them.
"We've spoken to dairy farmers who are losing money on every pound of milk they sell," said Alana Knudson, co-director of the Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis with the University of Chicago.
As America's trading partners slap tariffs on U.S. crops, those prices are set to be further undermined. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's gradual raising of interest rates threatens the financing for many smaller farms.
"A lot of our farmers take out operating loans so they can buy seed, fertilizer and spray. As we're looking at increasing interest rates, this is going to exacerbate financial vulnerability," Knudson said.
Unreliable finances are a major reason why three-quarters of farmers must rely on non-farm income, often from a second job. Health insurance access is another.
Health care and mental-health services can be critical, Knudson said, particularly in rural areas, where medical care may be scarce. The farm bill that passed the House last week threatens to undo that, she said, because it allows for health insurance to sell plans that exclude mental health coverage. The Senate version of the farm bill allocates $20 million to a program to connect farmers with behavioral health services.
Such programs are even more crucial today, said Fahy, because many publicly-funded programs that were created in the wake of the 1980s farm crisis have been chipped away over the years. She pointed to Minnesota, where a suicide hotline closed earlier this month after a budget dispute between the legislature and the governor.
"Farmer stress right now is extremely high, the farm economy is very precarious and not predicted to improve in the near future," she said. However, she added, "When there are steps in place to address the root cause, which is usually financial and legal, the stress becomes manageable."
Because people can feel stigma around issues of mental health, conversation is important, said Doug Samuel, associate psychology professor at Purdue University.
"When you're looking at someone who you have a concern about," Samuel advised, "don't be afraid to ask, don't be afraid to listen."
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
The false god must be fed. Will someone rid me of this meddlesome priest?
“The country (weather, blight, etc.) has a bad year - they can get a good price for their crop, but they hardly have any crop to sell. Then in good years, everybody has all sorts of product to sell but they can't get a good price.”
Of course, when I was growing up he was borrowing money at 25% and mortgage rates were 20% so nobody was buying a new home either. He held on though through the lean Carter years (and the lean periods before that) and did okay in the end.
Started his first home at the age of 23 in 1941. Then the war interrupted that project - but his dad (also a builder) finished it for him. Lots of ups and downs from 1945 to 1983.
My dad drove me insane over gardening while growing up. You can keep it.
I could if I had to, at least on a small scale.
My grandfather was a successful farmer and cattleman.
Millions of blue collar too and some just can’t find work at all because, like tools and aftermarket auto parts, they’ve been replaced by imports.
A farm can be a terrible trap. Major holdings, 24/7 life and death responsibilities for typically large families, insufficient income to meet basic needs, lack of viable options, and worse. Sometimes a life insurance policy is the only way forward.
My highest income was in the 80’s.
This is why that stupid Farm Aid that geriatric Neil Young, Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp never resonated with me. The real reason family farms are dying is because the children of the owners of the farms don’t want to take it over. They want to move off the farm and do something more with their lives. What usually happens is the farm is then sold to a conglomerate. And screw Young and others who want them to stay on the farm. Idiots.
Farmers here. Imports may play a role but the expenses continue to escalate and farm prices are not keeping pace. New varieties produce more than ever but you have to have rain or irrigation. Seed costs (cotton) up and up, chemicals up and up, equipment almost untouchable, land doubled since we began farming, and fuel costs up. For huge operations I cannot imagine what they have to borrow and pay in interest every year just to operate. We are a dying breed. It is just my husband farming less acres than most, no hired help and I am the helper. He is very conservative and we have been blessed in many ways. Some years we do really well and some it is lean. We can survive and have a life outside of farming with church, friends, family and each other. Still there is stress and we THINK we see more and more crop insurance fraud from people who are so huge you would think they didn’t need to cheat. Are they greedy or are they so highly leveraged they can’t risk a mediocre return?
“God himself brought every seedling up to new life”
Thank you for saying that. This is why farming/gardening is rewarding and it keeps us close to God and trusting Him for all our needs. It has been a great way to raise our children. Perhaps too many farmers are not connected to God and that certainly brings despair no matter what your profession.
Not to mention farm equipment is super expensive.
First, cause of death reporting is very loose if not imprecise in the US. Second, the Occupational Groups are overly broad, especially in this category. Third, assumptions about common or significant stressors related to occupation ... are just that, assumptions. To focus Farming or Farmers using data a cluster that includes non-farmers, as well as non-farm owners or operators, is grossly misleading. Some think that association with a certain family from Arkansas may have a higher correlation..
Markets are not working properly when the majority that are profitable are not the majority of producers and those that are never in need and always most profitable are the middlemen.
When have you ever heard about the giant agro-business middlemen being in financial distress, no matter what is happening on the farms? (Like Cargill & ADM and others like them).
When the SHTF people who know how to farm will be worth their weight in gold.
We need the obligatory Goebbels' pic here.
May we guess that you don’t really market that much farm produce?
Farming is a tough business. Back in 1951 we lost our wheat crop a day before harvesting due to a hail storm.
Took a bank loan and replanted. Then the drought hit and nothing came up the next year. That is when dad left the farm and went into construction work.
Dad made monthly payments for those bank loans for years.
Then in 1957, he came into some money and tried cattle, something he had experience with. Within two years we were destitute poor. Back to construction work again.
Many family farmers have to take out loans every year; many are hanging on by their fingernails. Business wise many farms are a bust. What keeps many farmers hanging on is not valid business decisions but the desire to keep the farm in the family- sentimental reasons, attachment to the land. Many of the farms have been in the family for a very long time, there is a lot of pressure to hang on. I can understand there would be a lot of stress in doing that. There are ranchers in the same spot. Everything has to work out just right weather wise and market wise for them to have a profitable year. That is not realistic business wise so hard to justify for loans, hard to stay in business.
What bothers me is farms and ranches are our food source. They are going out of business every day a lot of land goes out of production and is developed meaning it will never be back in production and few are concerned. Many of the lefties actually want ranchers out of business, they are vegetarians and want everyone else to be. They seem to have no concern about ordinary farmers either, their idea is the small organic farms will replace the “old” farmers. The small organic farmers plainly say they cannot do that, cannot make the numbers work to replace ordinary farming but no one said lefties are smart.
I hope people wake up before we have a food crisis. We have burdened ranchers and farmers with a lot of environmental and other regulations that are hard for them to deal with. I don’t know what the answer is; a different mindset about the people that feed us would be helpful.
Many years ago our leadership in this country determined we really needed food so many government programs were put in place to help support farmers and ranchers who have to deal so much with mother nature. The left and even many conservatives don’t understand the reasoning behind some of the programs and see it as ranching and farming welfare- but those programs/land leases. ETC. are the reason our agriculture system feeds not only us but is able to feed many people in other countries as well.
In many cases the children do want to continue, but do not want to deal with the issues of regulation, the loony left with all their causes...
I know many ranch and farm kids that grow up watching the stress of dealing with the government- that is what many want to avoid, not the farming and ranching itself. Knowing if a certain critter is found on your land your business may be restricted or closed down. Knowing if someone from the government you have to meet with is having a bad day they can make you have a bad year or several. That kind of thing takes a real toll.
Farmers and ranchers don’t have it easy. Then again, there aren’t too many small businesses that are located on “Easy Street”. I’m not disrespecting them, I am just saying that they aren’t the only ones that have seen tough times and a changing market. However, I do NOT like the massive Farm Bills that are essentially welfare or paying farmers to NOT grow crops.
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