local farmer comitted suicide

https://www.registerednursing.org/suicide-rates-profession/

Transportation number 4..... Farming #7......

 

It's the mentality of "if I can't have or make use of it, then no one will".

 

Lots of dairy farms around here have quit milking in the last few years, but kept their farms. Most switched to other sources of income, some going into beef cattle, others put up chicken houses, hog barns and so on.

Even the bigger farms are struggling right now. There's a large dairy operation (for this area) not far from here that's currently for sale. For a cool $6.5 million you can share in the misery. That's just the land and the equipment. No cows.

This topic hits home for me, as I watched my Aunt and Uncle's farm, where I spent a lot of my time when I was in high school, get sold off two years ago. They were a small dairy operation, and they just couldn't make a go of it anymore, and being in their 70's, they didn't want to reinvest to do something different. The farm is still there, a Mennonite bought it and now has two chicken houses on it.

Which begs the question, how many chicken houses do we really need? Geez. Soon the chicken business will be like the dairy industry, and maybe dairy will come back.

Without starting a riot, I can say I will not allow any milk from Walmart in my house. I've been buying raw milk from an Amish farm behind my house. I was never a big milk drinker, but lately I've come to love the taste of the raw stuff. I'm told it's risky to drink, with bacteria and such, but I'll take my chances. People drank it for a long time before pasteurization and homogenization and survived.

 

I remember when I was a kid in the early 80's, a farmer up the road killed himself because he couldn't stand to loose the farm that was in his family for generations. But here's some information I've found.

• Suicide rates in agriculture are higher than for any other occupation: 84.5 per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
• Studies suggest suicide rates may be higher as some deaths are reported as accidents rather than suicides.
• Not all farm states are included in CDC farm suicide statics (California, Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska are excluded), further skewing the numbers.
• Suicide rates appear to be higher in the Midwest than in California because of the diversified nature of agriculture in California and the greater likelihood of financial profitability among crops grown in the Golden State.
• Access to mental health services remain limited to farmers because of the rural nature of their occupations.
• Suicide rates are about 50 percent higher today than they were during the farm crisis of the 1980s.

Link: Farmer suicide: the topic few will discuss
This one compares the 80's to today....
Link: SF Special: Farmer Suicides Today vs. 1980s Farm Crisis

 

I hate hearing things like this. When all is said and done, suicide is a permanent solution, to a temporary problem. May God rest his soul.

 

True enough

 

Maybe because he felt no one would care fore them? Not unusual, sadly. Not just in this case, but in a lot of cases.

 

Thats horrible.