Farmer suicides plague the Nation
Twice as bad as veteran suicide rates, farmers have been extinguishing their lives in record numbers. Caught in the squeeze of capitalist-corporo agenda that plagues the rest of the nation, farmer’s face not only the uncertainty of nature but the aggressive threats of unstable interest rates, land foreclosures, corporate consolidation, and a debt spiral of ever increasing demands for equipment, pesticides, and fuel.
The grain prices have been low and the gas prices hanging high. Farmers feel the strain of unending work hours to keep stuff alive in the field, while concern over the price to sell, loans, and dwindling dignity for their place in America. The financial hardships affecting them undercuts the rest of rural communities because if the farmers can’t afford to purchase from the local grocery store, hardware man, and druggist; pretty soon all are cut-off at the knees by Wal-Marts of the world.
The ghosts of a great nation blow between the massive combines and corporate CAFOs straddling the broken dreams and betrayal in the midwest. Vacant towns pockmarked by old and crumbling Victorian residences that stand like shambles of gravestones near the broken fence rows. Congress has withdrawn social programs to assist farmers in times of social and mental health crisis. The agrarian nation has fallen into disrepair and disrespect as entire swaths of states are just viewed as commodities for high fructose cereals and drinks.
With the farm recession ever increasing farmers are being forced into submission by the continued corporate stranglehold as more communities crumble. I take the photos of the broken liquor store, a school, a few churches, fast-food and bar dives, a hollow youth center and boarded-up storefronts. “You need to have family farm structure to have rural communities – for school systems, the churches, and the gathering places of community.”
A cold December wind blows in the echo of no answer.
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers
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