Up next: a detailed overview of boring stats about something very sad.

I've lost family members to suicide, I've got colleagues in ag who've lost loved ones to suicide.

And we are not gonna fix this problem by lying about it!

So let's get our facts straight.

The first big debunk of a US farmer suicide epidemic was back in 2016.

https://thecounterorg.wpengine.com/farmer-suicide-crisis-cdc-study/

But a lot of folks are still out there pushing the story. Because "farmers are killing themselves!" is such a darn effective talking point.

Here's what it boils down to: the farmer suicide rate (44.8 - 59.4 per 100K) is over 3x the general population (14.12).

Very dramatic!

But farmers aren't the general population. They're mostly older rural white men. Whose suicide rate is 45.61 per 100K.

So, farmers are on par for their demo.

Gun ownership also pushes the likelihood up for an individual.

So if anything you'd actually expect farmers, who are more likely to have guns than average even for older rural white men, to be higher.

(Sources: farmer 2021 stat from this paper https://gaspsdata.dbhdd.ga.gov/data/suicide-rates-industry-and-occupation

and general & older rural white men, both for 2021, from WISQARS wisqars.cdc.gov)

There's a very real public health situation going on in older rural white men in the US. And most of them are NOT farmers!

So let's have some context. Let's look at a whole range of professions with elevated suicide rates. A lot of them are male-dominated, trades, and/or rural, and NOT farming.

Tag yourself! I'm an agricultural scientist 🤠

(that'll be funny later I promise)

All occupations, men: 32
All occupations, women: 8

Electricians: 52.1 (men only. not enough data for women, that'll happen in a lot of these jobs)

Landscaping supervisor: 55.7
Carpenters: 60.4
Machinists: 62.5
Crane operators: 63.4
Manual freight movers: 68.7
Glaziers: 69.6
Millwrights: 73.2

Don't worry white-collar & creative jobs, we got you

Biz & finance: 13.5
Computer & math: 16.1(m), 4.9(w)
Legal: 20.5(m), 8(w)
Writers: 53.1(m), 22.8(w)
Postal clerks: 58.5
Artists & related workers: 93.3
Pro athletes & entertainers: 114.5
Surveyors & cartographers: 119.4
Musicians: 138.7

Shout-out to the service workers

Retail sales: 44.3(m), 15.1(w)
Bartenders: 47.0(m), 23.8(w)
Chefs & head cooks: 66.5(m), 32.9(w)
Computer, ATM, & office machine repair techs: 65.7 (!?)
"Personal care & service workers, all other": 95.4 (!!??)

And I can't get a clear view of farm worker stats, because this paper doesn't break "farm worker" out as its own category. There's a "misc farm worker" but no way to tell how many farm workers it includes?

This keeps happening. It's very rare to see farm worker suicide stats reported clearly.

To bring it back to how we make sense of this.

Farmers may be struggling in some ways, but are REALLY not at higher risk for suicide than non-farming peers.

In fact, if we break it out by job, farmers aren't even in the top 20 of rural or blue-collar jobs by suicide risk.

Let's talk about how finances play into that.

Most Americans think of farmers as poor. That's decades out of date.

US farmers' median wealth & take-home income (AFTER farm debts & expenses) are much higher than non-farmers!

In rural counties, that can put even small farmers in the upper crust.

It's absolutely buck-wild to watch the farm sector make themselves the mascots of rural despair.

You know how they did that? Having the money to buy PR agents & ads to talk about how sad & poor they are.

That's kinda messed up if you think about it!