Posted on 12/16/2017 2:52:14 PM PST by Kaslin
NORWALK, WIS. — Not long ago, a local farmer here plunged into a depression so intense that he could barely muster the strength to leave his bed.
The 40-something father of eight went dark for weeks, despite the enormous amount of daily work needed to keep his family farm going.
“If you are running a small farm, you still have to get up and milk the cows. You got to go put the crops in. There are demands that nature doesn’t let you forget,” explained Jerry Menn, a farmer and doctor who was familiar with his friend’s crisis. “His massive depression immobilized him. He couldn’t even get out of bed for two or three weeks. Young guy, but he got himself worked into a hole.
“It’s his wife who’s taken over the operation, and she has, let me tell you. She’s a force of nature. This woman, she gets things done. You know, eight kids, mountain of debt, but she’s out there busting her butt to make things happen.”
It could have been worse for his friend, said Menn. “Depression can lead to suicide. He’s recovered from the deeper parts but in terms of the leadership in the family, that’s now been transferred to his wife.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’d better go read the WHOLE article, as it’s written by Salena Zito.
Unless she’s gone over to The Dark Side, this sounds like a hit piece right off the bat!
I don’t remember reading stories about the plight of the American farmer and such depression in the past nine years.
Hummm ... courious.
I’m sure that the story is quite true, just it has been hidden for so many years.
Trump’s fault?!?!?
I agree. With eight kids, he’s
already spent too much time in bed.
“The 2016 CDC study of approximately 40,000 suicides reported in the US in 2012 — the most recent year for which statistics are available — showed that the rate for agriculture workers is 84.5 per 100,000. The next occupation most at risk were construction, extraction, installation, maintenance and repair workers who had a suicide rate hovering around the 50 per 100,000 mark. Meanwhile, the suicide rate among American male veterans is 37 per 100,000, according to a 2016 study by the Veterans Affairs department.”
While I’m happy to read that about Veteran’s, I’m engaged to a retired construction worker - who farms! Those are the top two suicide groups.
Still not buying it...gonna read some more. I also have family in Norwalk who farm where this was supposedly researched. None of them have been/seem suicidal!
Paving the narrative for ranchers and suicide by BLM.
Farmers are Americas heroes yet contrast that with a factory closing and moving to Mexico and “displaces” hundreds of Americans it’s “ah, no big deal. They’ll just retrain to be rocket surgeons.”
I had always heard that farmers were the happiest in their occupation.
LOL!
The financial strains of it ARE real, and there is a local guy whose dairy and beef operation is going belly-up (we just bought two beef steer from him to butcher) but it’s just like success in any other occupation; unless you’re suited to it and LIKE it, or you’ve inherited the family business/farm and it’s not the least bit interesting to you, or you’re a bad manager when it comes to capital, then, yes - you ARE going to fail at it.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain about what she’s (Selina) trying to relay to us, here. She ends on a happy/thankful note. I dunno. Not enough information for me.
Why depression and suicide are rampant among American farmers is because of too much spraying new types insecticides on crops.
Up`n here us`n mountaintop farmers done never seen a depressed guy on a farm. Must be them flatlander farmers that`er killin` themselves coz the water-borne insecticides just don`t drain well off`n a flatland.
I remember farmer problems going back 66 years. I raised cattle for a few years and was constantly worrying over them. Hogs, same. Now I have only a few laying hens and I still worry over them.
I guess it stems from the day my dad borrowed money to plant wheat, and we had a GREAT WHEAT CROP on the High Plains. The night before harvesting a hail storm beat it into the ground. No corp insurance back then. So he borrowed more, planted more wheat, and drought killed every bit of it.
I remember him paying off those debts for ten years.
I'm as much a "small government" guy as you'll find but one thing I support is government help to small farmers who suffer as the result of drought,insects and crap products imported from Mexico,China and other 4th World cesspools.
Fake News.
Farmers are too busy running to the bank to cash Government checks to even have time to commit suicide.
I know, I read it right here on FR.
I think the strains will begin to show. Of course, DAIRYING is a strain all to itself. One has to be there no matter what. I remember my uncle having the flu but still had to milk. He was a tough one.
Today, the competition is fierce with limited land and high rents and ownership. Technology is pushing one to know things quickly and continually, and leaving anyone over 50 behind. As it becomes more specialized..cropping, dairying, confinement buildings....it never stops.
And for the ones that are succeeding there is not contentment. I see burnout coming for some of the younger ones.
“Technology is pushing one to know things quickly and continually, and leaving anyone over 50 behind. As it becomes more specialized..cropping, dairying, confinement buildings....it never stops.”
The same is true for all other industries and occupations.
Keep up with the changing times or get run over by those who better utilize new technologies.
The biggest hindrance to going into agriculture is the ridiculous cost of land. Unless you are born into it you can never decide to go into it.
I had to do an excerpt because New York Post articles must be excerpted
“I don’t remember reading stories about the plight of the American farmer”.....
It’s been there all along (depression), the media just stays away from it. I am aware of farmers with similar problems. The debt load many small farmers carry, just to keep operating is tremendous and often the farmer can afford to expand by creating more debt load, a bad year of crops, a piece of major equipment goes down, cattle get sick, there are numerous possibilities, a bad decision or two, knowing (or thinking) you can’t get over that major hurdle and there you have it....depression. Certainly there are those who will disagree but I have seen it happen often.
If you read it here on FR it must be true *Big Grin*
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