An Iowa state advocacy group has appealed to US senators to stop an agreement allowing JBS, one of the biggest pork processors in the world, to buy large parts of TriOak Foods, a southeast Iowa swine supplier, Iowa News Service reported.
reporter: many who remain barely hang on. call it a cries. reporter: which is why the minnesota department of agriculture launched a hot line to help. how many calls are you fielding a day? about 30,000 a year. some of the farmers call in the middle to have the night, 2:00 in the morning, in their tractor, trying to get the telling done because they know seeding has to happen, can you just talk to me, can you help keep me awake. reporter: the most urgent calls are directed to ted matthews. he once led fema s mental health response. when you get that first call from a new farmer, what do they say to you? the first call they re very timid, they re not sure whether they should have called. it s overwhelming how difficult things are in farming. there s not a minute where a farmer doesn t feel stressed. there s something always going on that could go wrong. reporter: according to the c.d.c., farmer suicide rates spiked 40% in less than two
iowa s main stream is closed. for good. so you ve got one, two, three, four, five. that s the emptying out of rural iowa is this, square mile by square mile. reporter: fourth generation farmer barb kalbach keeps track. so we re going to take this here. yes. reporter: on her drive to her husband jim s workshop. there was a family named lenecker that were big farmers. reporter: it s the aftermath, she says, of around 90% of small farms in the area shuttering, unable to survive shrinking profits, climate change and corporate farming. the cullbacks are the kalbachs are only a handful of one to have the farms left here. last year is terrible. you have to be great big or you might as well forget it. 500 acres won t do it. may as well have 2 $5,000.
In the last two decades, more than 100,000 small farms have disappeared in America — which has had a devastating effect on the mental health of farmers.
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