Dear editor:

I saw two of the exact same billboards in a row on the north side leaving Cody. They address agricultural suicide. I also saw the same billboard outside of Billings. Apparently, farmers exceed veterans, with over 1,500 having taken their own lives since the 1980s.

I grew up on a farming/ranching operation, as did my parents. Random events made rural life difficult. Calves born in a blizzard, a pig disease that killed about two hundred pigs and settled in the soil for another 40 years, a pack of dogs that killed most of the sheep, floods, drought and bad market prices. 

My parents I can safely categorize as fiercely independent. We were proud people not dependent on anything or anyone. This is what agricultural people are like. So why are farmers now 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population? What has changed? 

The internet identified many reasons for the change. One article stated farmers’ work is a significant part of their identity, not just a job. Some lists said that financial problems or feeling like a burden to others were reasons. None of that has changed for agricultural people since the 70s and 80s when I was a kid, and farmer suicide was not a thing. 

Another list about all suicide cited feeling trapped, feeling hopeless to change events, and bullying. Farm life was always unpredictable, but we didn’t feel bullied, hopeless or trapped. My parents were free people taking it on the chin whatever was thrown at them. 

My brother is considering letting his field go back to sagebrush, so elk will no longer be interested. He wouldn’t have to deal with Wyoming Game and Fish anymore. Currently he’s only compensated for some of the loss of crop, only if he agrees to allow elk harvest in his field. Elk continually break his fences. Hunters shoot holes in irrigation pipes. Hunters must be managed continually throughout the season. None of the above makes money. He said, “I’m up against a brick wall.” 

In my opinion the only thing that has changed since the 80s is the government’s insidious creep into farming. Regulations that make things more expensive, or allow you to make more money, regulations that tell you how, when and where you can and can’t do things. Sounds like a bully to me on all three levels: federal, state and local.

Maybe more concerning and puzzling is the fact I couldn’t find any articles mentioning gut-wrenching frustration of dealing with the bureaucracy as a reason. I can’t be the only one who sees this surely?

Respectfully,

Margaret Lohman

Cody