"[The 2016 cdc study] counted a lot of farmworker suicides as farmer suicides...so what's really happening is there is a suicide epidemic in migrant farmworkers. Through the magic of data-fudging it became a rash of farmer suicides, and then through the magic of the farm lobby farmworker suicides became a federal opportunity for funding farmers. Who when they're in legitimate financial trouble already have a thing we all have called bankruptcy law..."
Sarah Taber had a recent twitter thread also questioning the therapy efforts as possibly ineffective if those with power in a farming community exert toxic traits: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1102961401507782658
Bankruptcy law is a solution to the financial problem of "owing money" but in the case of a farmer you also own the land and means of production, and bankruptcy means forced sales of it, and it effective destroys that lifestyle for you, forever (nobody is starting a farm from scratch these days).
I never thought about that part of it. As a programmer you can't really take away my means of making a living via liquidation of assets. But farmers and I imagine many other professions, this is a very different scenario.
I have to think that they wouldn't want to remove someone's ability to pay their debts. But I also imagine that when you get to bankruptcy, it isn't about that anymore.
Eligible small farmers and fishermen can go through Chapter 12 bankruptcy to restructure their payments rather than selling off the assets they need to stay self-employed.
The limits for Chapter 12 are quite low when you look at the consolidation of farms that's happened in the last 10 years.
Corn land in Iowa runs, say, 5-10k/acre depending on quality and location. 640 acres per square mile. 3.8 million on the low end to buy one square mile...but the Chapter 12 debt limit is $4,153,150.
That doesn't count the 6 figure capex for the equipment, buildings, and the 5 figure spend for seeds,
It's typically at the 2-3000 acre level where farms become economically viable.
It's basically impossible to go from the city to a commodity corn, pig, or cow farmer.
Disclaimer: I have been involved in efforts to increase the limit.
I followed your link. She describes the problem as "predatory communities eating themselves alive". That sounds far from objective and painfully lacking in empathy.
What's your point in saying that here? That suicidal farmers don't deserve empathy because of the inequities in American agriculture? Who is innocent? By that standard we should all kill ourselves, no?
"[The 2016 cdc study] counted a lot of farmworker suicides as farmer suicides...so what's really happening is there is a suicide epidemic in migrant farmworkers. Through the magic of data-fudging it became a rash of farmer suicides, and then through the magic of the farm lobby farmworker suicides became a federal opportunity for funding farmers. Who when they're in legitimate financial trouble already have a thing we all have called bankruptcy law..."
Googling for the 2016 cdc farm suicide study reveals they have retracted the study back in June 2018: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-retracts-study-that-found-f... https://newfoodeconomy.org/farmer-suicide-crisis-cdc-study/
Sarah Taber had a recent twitter thread also questioning the therapy efforts as possibly ineffective if those with power in a farming community exert toxic traits: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1102961401507782658