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. 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. In the 1980s, America’s continuing family farm crisis began. “What we went through in the 1980s farm crisis was hell,” says Donn Teske, a farmer and president of the Kansas Farmers Union. “Someone needs to care about what’s going on out here.”Since the 1980s farm crisis, Rosmann says experts have learned much more about how to support farmers.

Source: The Guardian December 06, 2017 11:00 UTC