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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Recently there's been a spike in news media attention to farmer suicides brought on by depressed farm-product prices, but there appears to be a lack of solid data to compare the current incidence of suicide on the farm to that of the mid-1980s farm crisis.
Citing high rates of suicide in farm country, Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are introducing a bill to provide mental health support and more resources in rural areas.
Mother Nature is taking a toll on farmers and ranchers, with wildfires in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona and harsh wintry conditions in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
USDA officials are working under increasing pressure to devise programs to help compensate farmers for expected losses due to new Chinese tariffs, but the complexity of the task is daunting, say government officials.
U.S. farmers will plant more soybeans than corn this year – for the first time since 1983 – but acreage for both crops will be smaller than in 2017, according to USDA’s Prospective Plantings report.
Corryn La Rue will join the Agri-Pulse editorial team in Washington, D.C. in May, where she will cover hearings and events, writing for the company’s subscription-only newsletter and web site.
