“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.
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.”
Addressing the rise in suicide
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.”
HSF please do not read this!! We need your wisdom and grounded brain to continue for many years.
It truly is a damned shame.
What a rough life it can be …. to walk the rags-or-riches plank depending on something as fickle as the weather … not to mention all the other challenges.
I can’t think of too many professions I admire more than those who farm. IMHO, they deserve to be amongst the highest paid people around.
And don’t worry about HF!! He is a family man of deep character and steely resolve all born via life’s victories and hard knocks. Such men don’t do suicide.
The article is very misleading. Farmers and agricultural workers are two very different things and the author swaps out the two terms as if they were equal. Farming is holistic in nature, it encompasses a wide variety of skills, tasks, disciplines and numerous opportunities for earning an income. Agricultural workers are much closer to factory workers in that they perform a very limited range of tasks closely associated to a single crop and revenue stream.
From the article- “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.
But she doesn’t tell us why anyone with the sense God gave a houseplant would continue to operate that kind of business. The reason is that they are locked into a monoculture- dairy in this case- and are prevented by law from charging anything other than what the US FedGov tells them they may sell their product for and still be allowed to sell their product.
http://reason.com/archives/2013/09/04/why-is-government-fixing-the-price-of-mi
If you cannot set prices based on your cost to produce them, then you are a slave. I don’t know what the suicide rate for slaves was, but I bet it was close to the rate for Agricultural Workers.
Add to that the fact that people who do farm, on average, have a great deal of love and respect for Nature and the environment. Being forced to use GMO’s, herbicides and stripping the soil of it’s tilth by the constant application of chemicals adds a tremendous burden to the woes carried by someone who respects the Earth. It’s like pimping out your daughter to put bread on the table.
Of course none of this can be discussed because that would cast a bad light on how we do business in the Post Modern age, place some of the burden back on the people who consume “cheap” food without a thought to it’s origins or the associated costs to the environment and our overall health, and most importantly it might make some intelligent people reconsider their lifestyles and trade in being a consumer with being a producer.
My experience has proven to me, beyond any reasonable doubt, that farmers lead healthier and more satisfying lives than any other profession I have ever been involved in and that their contributions to the overall health of the environment and society in general are as important as any other vocation. And you’d have to try not to make money at it if you are diversified and flexible.
Milk prices are kept low to benefit the big co-ops and preserve factory “farming.” There is consumer demand for grass fed (pastured) cow milk but it is almost impossible to produce and bottle at a profit because of the higher operating cost. It is also the reason milk consumption has been in a downward trend for years, since it simply doesn’t taste very good. The latest fad is frankenmilk (where milk is chemically altered to reduce lactose, increase protein, etc., but it is still made from the same shitty milk.
PS, buy Amish.
I am not a farmer, however I saw this coming miles away, as I am sure that many others did. I will sum it up in the following:
Monsanto (soon to be Bayer) another division of HELL inc. whose CEO is Satan himself.
ADM (and all corporate, high volume farming in general).
John Deere suing farmers that attempt to repair their own farm equipment.
Small towns having the life sucked out of them by the massive corps strip-mining the citizens of anything of value.
Massive farm mortgages (banksters of course)
Rampant HFT commodity trading for profit instead of hedging. (again with the banksters) Think MF Global. Remember all the farmers decimated financially by that. Of course no one went to jail.
Government restrictions / subsidies for the worst kind of massive crops. Ethanol anyone?
Just to name a few….
This country is so unsustainable on so many levels, it is getting to the point where the imbalances come whatever industry / direction you look. Financialization and crooked / crony government has permeated everything so thick, there is hardly a crevice left that has not been somehow destroyed or co-opted by this stupidity.
I am just surprised that more of these farmers and other committing suicide are not taking some of the scum with them. My only guess is that the farmers have the sense to know that the local employee is not the problem, but the CEO, lawyers / politicians up in the high rises and state houses. I suspect that as time goes on, and things get worse, that may change. Sad.
Well who the fuck could downvote that and more curiously, WHY??
Thanks HSF I feel better now.
Well said HSF! Monoculture is a losing game. It seems it only produces a few winners, such as seed, fertilizer and chemical companies. Being a diversified farmer is truly a blessing. Diversification makes you question every action you make concerning your farm operation. I have an heirloom fruit orchard, a market garden, chickens, and honeybee apiary on less than 5 acres. In order to make them work, you have to be smart in your cultivation of them all. You must work your farm, as to not poison your entire ecosystem. This makes the job interesting, challenging and rewarding. Monoculture is a big reason for all the neurological problems. Who doesn’t know someone that is not affected by autism, dementia, crohns, fibromyalgia, Incontinence, and ms. Just to name a few. Unfortunately, the govt. regulations on producing and selling your own food under the guise of safety seem to benefit the big players of monoculture rather than diversified small farms. People are waking up. They know that monoculture is not making anybody healthy. As you stated, if you are a diversified farmer you can offer several healthy alternatives to the people, that monoculture cannot. More people are appreciating this fact.
Of course monoculture is not making anybody healthy. That could not be further from its aim. It is, however, making a few elites ridiculously wealthy and as the quote of the day clearly states, they will happily destroy us all to avoid losing any of their wealth, power and influence.
It takes a brave man to be a farmer.
People in suits set the prices for farm goods and people in suits set the tax rates on land. Neither has no idea what it takes to get milk to the table or steak on a plate. All they know how to do is spend other’s money and line their pockets with what they take, never thinking anything is wrong. No morals, no life as I see it. John
I call bullshit on this whole thing. Between family and friends, I know scores of farmers. All of them are pretty pissed off on the slow drip of having to deal with State and County and Federal agencies, but that’s more of an annoyance than crisis. They’re very intrusive, and you just have to come up with a good way to deal with them, depending on your situation. I do know one guy who committed suicide after 2008. He had built his operation from scratch, and after 25 years the thought of losing it caused him to lose his mind. His wife left him at the same time, he was a mess. Riches to rags, and he couldn’t deal with it. Most people I know are also quite happy with the Trump Administration and the changes that are ongoing. There’s probably never been a better time to have it paid off farm than right now. This is just propaganda trying to convince you that Trump’s tariffs are going to bankrupt farmers. Our agricultural products are among the most tarriffed in the world. You won’t see a farm revolution against Trump.
This one made me tear up for a minute for the farmers, for America, for all we have lost. Then, after some reasoned reflection, I became furious at the criminals who have caused the downfall. Will we never take a stand and rise up?
The EPA, Wildlife Nazis etc are a big part of our problems. We can’t let water run off a pasture so we need to have huge “septic” systems. When will the Useful Idiots realize that big predators are “sacred” so they will eat deer, our livestock and the occasional Useless Idiot. We are required to provide, maintain and pay taxes for swamps for/to the Great Satan for the production of Mosquitoes and Migratory Birds which are Disease Vectors. There are a lot of things we could produce (peanuts, cotton, tobacco, hemp etc) but the government (because of some protection racket) won’t let us sell them. Don’t Useful Idiots realize they pay taxes so the ZOG can buy “conservation” land so people can never buy it? The ZOG wants to stop you from owning guns/ammo, land/animals, cash/gold/silver, food/emergency supplies, a small businesses, a White Patriotic Christian Family debt free way of life, and a mind/will of your own.
“predators are “sacred”. Human or animal, it’s a big part of liberalism. One of the more interesting portals into the liberal brain can be seen on YouTube. The same people who would want to give a dolphin human rights, laugh hysterically watching one get beaten to death by killer whales.
I see a revolt against the big Ag guys by informed people. Most care about healthy food. We buy locally when and where we can knowing we’re supporting local farmers and getting better quality-win/win. Any “saving” from big Ag will be offset by poor health (GMOs are insane) in too many instances. It’s the usual story-quality doesn’t cost, it pays.
We’ve started growing our own. It’s a steep learning curve and far more expensive than I imagined. I have the utmost respect for farmers.