Issue link: http://accesshealth.uberflip.com/i/1220202
PAGE 14 March 2020 By Tonia Wright, Publisher It's no secret that rural residents tend to be sicker, more cash-strapped, have less access to primary and mental health care, and are more susceptible to substance use disorders (SUDs). On top of that, rural communities often face transportation barriers and limited access to jobs that pay a living wage. The outcome is higher rates of depression and suicide. A report, "Growing Stress on the Farm: The Expanding Economic and Mental Health Disparities in Rural Missouri," puts it this way: "Driven by what has come to be known as 'deaths of despair,' life expectancy for rural Americans is more than two years shorter than their urban counterparts, largely due to higher rates of drug overdoses, alcohol-related diseases, and suicide. As a leading cause of death in rural America, suicide has a particularly devastating effect on farm families." Economic factors contribute to suicide rate Missouri's rural suicide rate is growing 50% faster than nonrural suicide rates. The farm economy is a major driver. Slow recovery from the Great Recession, extreme weather, untenable commodity prices, tight lending conditions, and foreign trade policies have packed such a punch that today, there are 16,000 fewer Missouri farms than 20 years ago, according to the report. A St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank's article, "A Tale of Two Economies: Farmers Struggle Despite Strong U.S. Economy," points to 2013 as the beginning of a downward pull on farming revenues. "At a time when the overall U.S. economy continues to boom, the U.S. agriculture sector has continued to struggle amid falling farm income and deteriorating agriculture credit conditions," the article states. "Over the past five years, U.S. economic growth has continued to strengthen. The growth in U.S, real gross domestic product (GDP) has averaged 204 percent per quarter since 2013. Down on the farm, though, conditions have been far from robust. From 2013 to 2017 net farm income – considered to be a broad measure of farm profitability – fell 39 percent, from $123.8 billion to $75.5 billion." In 2014, U.S. trade policies with China contributed to near record-level stockpiles of crops and livestock. Midwestern producers, according to the Federal Reserve, saw low bushel prices – reducing net farm income by 40%. With farm credit drum tight, farmers find themselves struggling to operate and pay debt. Extreme weather conditions persisted in 2018 and 2019, forcing Missouri farmers to experience the sharpest decline in net income in the Midwest. By October 2019, the Federal Reserve reports, combined bushel prices (corn, soybeans, wheat, and other products) fell by 47% since 2012. Losing a legacy Grief, often associated with the death of a loved one, has many layers. The family farm is akin to a legacy passed from one generation to the next. The sacrifices, physical, emotional, and environmental stressors, don't always manifest bumper crops and high yields. And with the unknowns that each year brings, farmers relentlessly do the work – perhaps operating on sheer faith. They've seen their parents' and grandparents' do it, and somehow it worked out. But when the tide changes, and there's no way out – what's been a legacy, what was expected to remain a permanent fixture for the next generation and the next – is gone, it's traumatizing. There were 110,986 farms operating in Missouri in 1997, according to Census of Agriculture. By 2017, that number decreased by 14% to 95,320 – and 15,666 families were left unable to maintain their farms. (© Panumas - stock.adobe.com)