Rural suicides among farmers
I&#x27;m from rural Eastern Colorado (think Kansas but you can see a mountain far off) and I&#x27;ve know farmers&#x2F;ranchers who&#x27;ve committed suicide but I don&#x27;t think any was due to financial stress.  It&#x27;s anecdotal but all were doing quite well.  I think the lack of meaning in their lives due to farm subsidies in the form of soil conservation may be the root cause.<p>Every farmer knows how the game is played.  Do whatever it takes to get several years of high yields, then you&#x27;ll be offered money from the gov to not farm, based on those yields.<p>But nobody tells them about the depression that sets in when a farmer is paid to not farm - to loose the teleo of one&#x27;s existence. It&#x27;s sad to see and since those &quot;soil conservation&quot; contacts can be up to 10 years long, it&#x27;s a long time to get out of that funk.<p>Again, anecdotal, but I&#x27;ve never heard of a farmer who had land to work and the ability to work it commit suicide.