farmer suicides

Stytch

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So, here's the story that brings this thread to life:
https://stories.usatodaynetwork.com/seedsofdespair/

As I'm reading through it, I'm just so confused by what seems to me to be a huge glaring thing, and I'm going to try and work it out here. Feel free to add your thoughts.

All these farmers are losing their farms because, for whatever reason, the farm is no longer profitable. Costs vs profits, natural disasters, climate change maybe, global market trends, politics, all of the above. But the bottom line is that their business model is no longer working. Now, in every other industry I can think of, this is the sign that you find a new business model. Or a new business. The capitalist-loving pro-Trump Real Americans have been very clear about this, and about how our system works perfectly in this manner. I am especially kind of bitter about this because, as a refugee from the newspaper industry, I can't jive the gleeful comments I read about the death of my former industry and way of life (for all people, really) with the OMG OUR FARMERS! attitude that seems perfectly acceptable. Farming is a job and a way of life, fine, I'll accept that. So was my job. It was my life, and if you weren't a reporter, there's a million things you'll never understand about me and how I view the world. Same is probably true for lots of industries. Also, unlike farming, Freedom of the Press is actually in the First Amendment, and I can think of only a few things more American, so I am constantly confused by how a lot of MAGA folks seem so eager to kill it.

BUT CAPITALISM IS AWESOME, LET THE MARKET DECIDE. Ok, well, the market seems to be deciding that family farms are not the way to go anymore, judging from this and many other things I've read over the years. BUT DON'T LET IT DECIDE ABOUT FARMERS. Why not let it decide about farmers? The government bails out agriculture in a way it doesn't bail out many other industries (and yes, ag is arguably different from many, but it's still an industry) and maybe we should start to close that welfare line. I hear the MAGA crowd hates welfare. Sure, a lot of that bailout goes to big ag operations, not small ones, (so corporate welfare) but I can look around my small rural county and point out many family farms that have gotten government money for crop failure, hell, sometimes farmers are even paid NOT to grow something, if you can believe that. (That's a thing, though it escapes me what it's called right now.)

BUT WHAT WILL WE EAT? Well, if you are willing to eat less meat, there's actually plenty of food. More than enough. We waste a shit ton of food every day and more of us are obese than should be, with the associated diabetes and heart issues. Also, you'd be surprised how much of that "food" these farmers are raising is actually going to feed animals. So, eat less animals, grow less food. Boom, problem solved. And I'm not even a vegetarian, but dietitians seem pretty clear that most of us can stand to eat less meat.

BUT EXPORTS! Hey, that's cool. Export all you want. But America first, right? And America's economy doesn't seem to want to support this model. So if you could really export and make the business work, you'd be paying the bills, amirite? Sure, Trump's fucking with China these days, and that seems to be making your business model hurt, but you love him, and you're going to vote for him again, so I don't really see the problem here, either.

SINCE I CAN'T LIVE EXACTLY LIKE MY GRANDPARENTS DID ON THIS FARM I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF AND LEAVE MY WIFE TO DEAL WITH THE MESS. Ok, but that sounds mighty snowflakey, and I thought you hated those?

Sigh. I do not mean to make fun of suicide, suicide is awful. I don't want anyone to try it. But the cognitive dissonance that I'm feeling reading "their side" of things and knowing how "they" have treated me, a godless member of the mainstream media (I was never anything of the sort, but why quibble over the fine points now) is just really warping my brain right now. I hope these folks find help, and I hope they live to be 100 on their land which they farm to good return. Is it too much to also ask that they learn some deeper self reflection when they deal with me, or vote, or whatever?

One less caveat, and I'll stop this stream of conscience ramble: There is absolutely nothing in this article that I can remember reading that says anything about where these poor farmers stand in their politics. I'm basing all of my judgments on my knowledge of local farmer politics, which are heavily MAGA, "we stand with big pork/chicken." and "pledge allegiance to the flag loudly in public or you're a godless communist." Being surrounded by this all of the time has been very wearing since Trump took office and more folks started saying the quiet parts out loud all the time. Please keep the liberals who live in deep MAGA territory in your thoughts, we are not well.
 
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ElaineA

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"America as an Agrarian Utopia" has been the root of a helluva lot of dissonance from the very beginning. From when the original inhabitants of the land had to save the Puritans from starving to death, only to be declared an impediment to civilization, to the evil dissonance of slavery, to the Captialism for Thee, but Not for Me of modern farming. The idealization of the past as it relates to the land has always been a rootstock concept in this country. There's no logic-ing it out. It's pure pathos.
 

Auteur

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Interesting article, Stytch. It seems that a lot of people would like to completely do away with real journalism or what they call the "lying media" and force people to rely on government issued propaganda, much like the situation in China, North Korea, Russia, Germany in the 1930s and early '40s... That's what some people actually want because reality doesn't align with their belief system.

We're living in disheartening and somewhat depressing times. Suicide rates are at an all-time high and have skyrocketed in the past few decades, beginning around 2000. People are losing hope--especially people without four year degrees.

In the tech economy, you no longer can achieve the American dream through hard work alone, and it's been that way for some time, but even more so now. You have to be able to sit at a computer in an office all day, and some people just can't handle that; they prefer to work with their hands, but physical jobs like construction work are going to immigrants because they're willing to work harder for less. People used to be able to earn a decent living working at factories--especially unionized factories, but for the most part, those days are gone and they're not coming back.

There's more to say about that, but my dog is bugging me to take him for a walk. :)
 

Introversion

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Republicans pay lip-service to farm country voters because a majority of them are a reliable conservative block.

Coastal Democrats pay lip-service to farm country voters, because of a lingering feeling that rural people are somehow a better bunch — kinder, more practical, more family-valued than urban people (a fiction which farm country voters are happy to agree with).

The reality is that modern agriculture in America is more akin to industrial manufacturing than Old MacDonald. Conglomerates produce most of our food, on “factory farms” that are producers of toxic effluents.

I enjoin anyone who has doubts to visit the hog farms of northern Iowa — no need to actually be on-site, just drive within 20 miles downwind of one. (I say this as someone who spent most his pre-adult life on farms, dealing with manure. There’s a vast difference between the smell of your average little family farm of, say, the 1970s, and the factory farms of today. The smell is toxic on a scale you cannot imagine, and poorly-managed treatment of this scale of manure is poisoning water tables and rivers near those farms.)

So, I have some sympathy for rural farmers who want to continue doing what their ancestors did — make a living on the land — but at the same time, they’re not doing what their ancestors did. That’s gone. Even in the 1970s, my father and virtually all of our farming neighbors who were doing even moderately well, did so because one or both of they and their spouse also worked jobs in town. Making a living from commodities farming just isn’t possible on the Old MacDonald scale any more, and I’m tired of pretending like farmers have an occupation that’s more worthy of preserving than any other that’s been displaced by technology or trade changes.
 
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Roxxsmom

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Republicans pay lip-service to farm country voters because a majority of them are a reliable conservative block.

Coastal Democrats pay lip-service to farm country voters, because of a lingering feeling that rural people are somehow a better bunch — kinder, more practical, more family-valued than urban people (a fiction which farm country voters are happy to agree with).

The reality is that modern agriculture in America is more akin to industrial manufacturing than Old MacDonald. Conglomerates produce most of our food, on “factory farms” that are producers of toxic effluents.

I enjoin anyone who has doubts to visit the hog farms of northern Iowa — no need to actually be on-site, just drive within 20 miles downwind of one. (I say this as someone who spent most his pre-adult life on farms, dealing with manure. There’s a vast difference between the smell of your average little family farm of, say, the 1970s, snd the factory farms of today. The smell is toxic on a scale you cannot imagine, and poorly-managed treatment of this scale of manure is poisoning water tables and rivers near those farms.)

So, I have some sympathy for rural farmers who want to continue doing what their ancestors did — make a living on the land — but at the same time, they’re not doing what their ancestors did. That’s gone. Even in the 1970s, my father and virtually all of our farming neighbors who were doing even moderately well, did so because one or both of they and their spouse also worked jobs in town. Making a living from commodities farming just isn’t possible on the Old MacDonald scale any more, and I’m tired of pretending like farmers have an occupation that’s more worthy of preserving than any other that’s been displaced by technology or trade changes.

I know what you mean. I remember wondering, during the big "Farm Aid" thing back in the 80s, why it was more tragic for a farmer to lose their family business that it is for any other family to lose a business they've been running for generations. I'd wager that almost everyone whose families have been in the US for several generations (this probably goes for most Americans who have come here more recently) have lots and lots of farmers in their family tree. I know mine does. Yet few of us make our living that way now. I'm pretty sure many of my ancestors were happy to get off the farm. I get why farms have subsidies--we need a stable food supply. But the subsidy system doesn't seem to preserve small farms.

Not saying we shouldn't have programs that make it possible for people to have a shot at making the kind of living they want to make doing what they want to do, but ironically many rural types are fiercely against government aid. At least for anyone else.
 
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stephenf

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It is not just an American problem . People and the governments whant cheep food . Abetted by retailers , farming , and food production, has become an industrial process . Some farmers can change and produce higher value products . But traditional farming on a small scale Is no longer viable .
 

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It is not just an American problem . People and the governments whant cheep food . Abetted by retailers , farming , and food production, has become an industrial process . Some farmers can change and produce higher value products . But traditional farming on a small scale Is no longer viable .

Not producing commodity crops, anyways. The small farms near me now that are (or seem to be) successful, are because they’re nimble and produce in niches that sell direct to consumers. I buy eggs and meat this way now, from a farm in my town. It’s more expensive than what I can buy in the grocery store, but is better quality. The same farm will also deliver loads of loam, crushed rock, composted manure, etc, and sells bales of hay and bags of hardwood pellets — whatever sells, I guess.

Other small farms near me sell whole milk and cheeses. Some have pick-your-own vegetables and fruits, and/or farm-stands selling veggies and fruits, often with small-batch jams, jellies, baked goods, etc.

Ironically, the fact that Massachusetts has cities and dense suburbs works in the favor of the farms still in operation. They have plenty of potential customers, to whom they can sell directly to.
 

cornflake

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The same thing applies to coal workers.

Remember the heat Hillary took in '16 for saying those jobs were going away, so she wanted to enact programs to help people find other types of work? Trump still has support in coal areas for promising to bring coal jobs back (like they were ever somehow a good thing? Dangerous, dirty work that your grandfather did is what you aspire to because....?) which he, of course, can't, but hey!

Why was there not 'capitalism means these jobs are being replaced and that's a good thing?'
 

Introversion

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Why was there not 'capitalism means these jobs are being replaced and that's a good thing?'

Because Tmurp needed their votes, and they preferred the sound of his lies to Clinton’s harsh truths?
 

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I work for my family's farm; like most family farms still operating, we've moved from commodity production to specialty (raw milk cheese) and while it's got its challenges, we're doing good financially. But this kind of thing is happening to our neighbors, and yeah... this hits close to the bone.

I'm familiar with a very specific type of farming (dairy) and a specific size (the "small dairy" or "family farm", eg 500 cows or less). I'm not going to speak much to crop farms, megafarms, or the Midwestern corn lobby because I know very little about them, and what I know, I don't like. But with that background I did want to offer some thoughts.


Farming is a job and a way of life, fine, I'll accept that. So was my job. It was my life, and if you weren't a reporter, there's a million things you'll never understand about me and how I view the world. Same is probably true for lots of industries.

I hear what you're saying (and the death of newspapers thing frankly sucks; I hate that real reporting is being replaced with Fox "opinions" and shiny news anchors offering newsbytes), but I do think this kind of job loss is particularly hard on farmers for a few reasons:

  1. Most farmers are old.
  2. Farmers are self-employed, meaning despite paying a ridiculous 30% taxes, you have little to no financial safety net when you fail -- no 401K, no pension, no unemployment benefits, little to no social security.
  3. Most farmers live on their land, so when they lose their "job", they also lose their house.
  4. Farming is skilled labor; many of these folks will have a high school or lower education.
  5. Farming, especially animal agriculture, is intense and insular. Dairy farming spectacularly so. I was eighteen before I saw the ocean, because it's a six-hour drive and the cows need milking every 12 hours. We could only pull it off because we were seasonal and we'd gotten big enough to afford a hired hand. I know many farmers who have worked 365 days a year (no Christmases off on a farm!) for 20-30 years and never been further than 2 hours from their farm. My brother routinely works 70 hours a week during the season. For farming, that's normal.
  6. In dairy and beef, you're losing your herd. This is... gah, I have no idea how to explain that impact. These are animals who depend on us and trust us to take care of them, animals we have a relationship with. I haven't worked directly on the farm in 15 years, but I can look at a cow and say "oh, is that one of (cow I raised from a calf)'s?" and hear, "yeah, that's her great-granddaughter" from my brother, who raised this cow, her mother, and her grandmother. Cows aren't pets (well. Most cows aren't pets) but the herd... I don't think it's out of line to say they're something close to family. That's what killed so many farmers in the UK after hoof and mouth -- they were being compensated for the animals, it wasn't financial, but they had to stand by and watch their entire herd slaughtered and some of them couldn't take it.

So losing your farm is like simultaneously losing your job, your house, and your family when you're in your 60s, have no financial resources or marketable job skills, have never left your hometown, and have spent every moment of your life doing nothing but that job. It's not one hit. It's the whole boxing ring.

BUT CAPITALISM IS AWESOME, LET THE MARKET DECIDE.

Yup, this is dumb, no argument there.

BUT WHAT WILL WE EAT? Well, if you are willing to eat less meat, there's actually plenty of food. More than enough. We waste a shit ton of food every day and more of us are obese than should be, with the associated diabetes and heart issues. Also, you'd be surprised how much of that "food" these farmers are raising is actually going to feed animals. So, eat less animals, grow less food. Boom, problem solved. And I'm not even a vegetarian, but dietitians seem pretty clear that most of us can stand to eat less meat.

I don't think it'll surprise you to hear that this is an oversimplification. :D There are massive -- MASSIVE -- problems with the American agribusiness industry and, yes, absolutely we should be eating less meat (and producing meat and dairy in a far more sustainable manner). However, we should also be eating less corn and soybeans, which is most of what the "food" raised is, nor is most of that "food" suitable for human consumption as is. It gets turned into meat, or it gets turned into corn syrup and processed food. Why? Because corn is (artificially) "cheap".

I've occasionally heard Whole Foods (disclosure: one of our major customers) referred to as "Whole Paycheck", and every time I do a tasting or public event I will inevitably get an earful from someone about "why does this cheese cost so much?!" The truth? The price of lettuce at Whole Foods is much closer to the real price of producing that lettuce. My cheese costs $8 a pound to make. Can someone on minimum wage afford that? Hell no. So... what do they do? Go without food? No. Buy subsidized, artificially-cheapened, propped-up-by-government support corn syrup products? YUP.

The US, for the past fifty years or more, has been engaged in an increasingly desperate game of musical chairs to keep the price of food artificially low -- for reasons good (starving? Not a pretty way to go) and bad (screw you, corn lobby). That bill is coming due, and soon, but for now, the big agribusiness companies want family farms to be the ones standing when the music stops.

I'm admittedly a friggin' socialist, but I am all for the government stepping in to stop this. Not because my family would personally benefit (we're not commodity, and wouldn't) but because for everyone but a handful of greedy corporate execs this is going to end very, very, VERY badly. The mega-farms that the small farms are being squeezed out by? They're gonna fail. Why? Because they're building giant, "efficient" dairies in California and Texas, or what we in the business like to call "the stinking desert". Both places have incredibly fragile water systems, and the last California heat wave killed over 10,000 cows. Nor are the giant Midwestern crop farms in any better state. Once the black hole that is the Ogallala aquifer dries up, you can kiss "plenty of food" and cheap corn goodbye. In twenty years, US agriculture could be a shell, incapable of feeding more than a fraction of the population.

And that's a problem. I don't know how quickly you can rebuild a newspaper after it's been destroyed -- a decade, maybe? But farms are not that resilient. You'd have to retrain the people -- not just the farmers, but the support industries like technicians and veterinarians -- but that's small potatoes. You'd have to regrow the herds -- even bringing genetics in from other countries, that's a minimum of 20 years. Probably more like 50. Land... well, if it were left fallow or lightly farmed, a decade or two to reclaim it. If it was developed? Paved? Most estimates I've seen are over a century.

Once it's gone, it's gone for a lifetime.

...But now I'm ranting, and this message is already way too long. :D
 

Stytch

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I truly appreciate the counter ranting. Thank you for sharing this, katfeete!
 

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I came back from checking out 130-year-old farm land, logged into AWWC while drying off, and saw... this post.

Suicide prevention signs went up this season at the intersections in town. Like many rural areas in the USA, we have a weak healthcare system, so I'm not sure what anyone is supposed to do. By calling a hotline, one may sit on hold to be told to call a therapist. Where? Mental healthcare is generally someone in a church telling you to believe harder in God. (I've asked around and made the calls. This isn't hyperbole.)

Why small farms matter is a hugely complicated issue. katfeete touched on parts of it. The problems with relying on the megacorps are covered in who knows how many books, but shouldn't be too hard to get the gist of by thinking of what happens under American-based oligarchies. Also, managers of small farms are often people actually know the land, the water tables, local history, and what exists in the wild better than anyone but the specialists where they source some of that information.

At the same time, farmers are at the mercy of state, federal, and international politics. Of course weather is a daily concern, as well. A journalist who goes out in a big storm is brave, maybe thinking about being recognized later for a good story. The farmer going out in every storm is doing their job, and no one's going to care except to complain if a crop failure impacts a market.

Yet I haven't met a farmer who doesn't support newspapers. Cityfolk are more likely to complain about newspapers being outdated and at times dangerously negligent with information. Farmers cling to the newspapers and magazines that keep them in touch with communities that they help feed, clothe, and otherwise supply but can't regularly interact with. The attitude that because the public wasn't entirely sympathetic to the layoffs of journalists for a while means farmers should die now is misguided, as well as cruel to express.
 
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Layla Nahar

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"The price of lettuce at Whole Foods is much closer to the real price of producing that lettuce. My cheese costs $8 a pound to make. Can someone on minimum wage afford that? Hell no. So... what do they do? Go without food? No. Buy subsidized, artificially-cheapened, propped-up-by-government support corn syrup products? YUP."

This is one of the main reasons I shop at Whole Foods. I have always been thinking that their prices must be closer to the real cost of producing the food. You are the first person outside my head to put this in words.
 

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Another factor is the rural people, especially men, do not help-seek for depression and even if they do it is not readily available.
 

shakeysix

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I recently took a job as a Field Enumerator for the USDA-NASDA. I actually go out and interview farmers about their operations, their methods, their lifestyles. There are mental health questions on the surveys. I myself am part owner of the acreage that was once the family homestead. We tenant it out to a cousin and have since the fifties because farming is a complex, confusing profession. My great grandmother and her sisters all ran family farms into the late fifties but it was simpler then. Just the forms, programs and paperwork is mind boggling. Factor in the idiots who follow the popular food fads and you can see why farmers are frustrated.

One thing I can tell you, that remark that Bloomberg made-- "what is so hard a bout farming? All you do is put a seed in a hole."--really alienated what could have been a wedge in Kansas' Red State Stranglehold. --s6