Farm Financial Stress and Suicide are on the Rise
No one can argue that we are living in some very uncertain times in the World right now. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged the farming community has been dealing with years of uncertainty and financial decline. In almost every commodity produced by American Agriculture, we have seen years of increased production cost and little to no increase in farm income. This has led to farm operation taking on more debt to get through years of losses. Farm debt in the US has risen to levels that are comparable to the Farm Financial Crisis of the 1980’s. It has been reported by the USDA, that since 2013 farm debt has risen at a rate of 30 percent to a level in 2018 of $409 billion. The increase in debt and the stress of keeping the family farm going has contributed to the increase in farm worker suicide in the us.
During the period of 2000 to 2016 that suicide rate in farm workers, age 16-64, has risen 34 percent to a level of 17.4 deaths per 100,000 farm workers. This is a suicide rate of 1.5 times the national average for the same period according to CDC. The CDC claims it could be higher, because some farm deaths could be masked as farm accidents. These are alarming trends in the agriculture community that are not looking to decrease during the 2020 year. As an ag community and community in general, we need to be looking for signs of stress and mental health issues within the agriculture community. Warning signs that we should look for in friends and family members that might be struggling with mental health issues and suicide are:
· Talk of suicide frequently
· Change in sleep and or eating patterns
· Stopped taking medication or hoarding medication
· Increase in drug and alcohol use
· Preoccupation with Death
· Making last arrangements, giving away prized possessions
· Obtaining firearms
· Withdrawal from families, routines and activities that they enjoyed
· Aggressive and disruptive behavior
· Increased irritability and criticism
There are several resources that are available to help with managing stress. North Carolina Agromedicine Institute has resource from universities and healthcare organizations to help with managing finance to resource specific to mental health in different regions in North Carolina. You can find information and links to organization at
www.ncagromedicine.org
. You can access downloadable self-assessment from Agrisafe Networks at
www.agrisafe.org
. If there is an immediate need for resources and help call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255.
National Farmers Union, Farm Credit, American Farm Bureau Federation and Michigan State University have come to gather to offer free online training in Rural Resilience: Farm Stress Training. The free online course covers topics on stress management, communicating with distressed farmers and suicide awareness. In just under three hours of instruction participant are introduced to engaging activates and videos. More information on the training can be found at
https://farmcredit.com/rural-resilience
.
If you need help connecting to resource for farm management and finance, contact the Caswell County Cooperative Extension Service at 336-694-4158 or at
www.caswell.ces.ncsu.edu
.
Article submitted by Travis Hoesli, Caswell County Cooperative Extension Director
|
|
Well, now it’s summer. The kids will all be home from school and it’s time to figure out what activities to do. Oh wait, the kids have been “home from school” for months now due to COVID-19 and now they don’t even have classwork to do.
Wait, what’s a parent to do?
Take advantage of 4-H Virtual Summer Opportunities. 4-H Agents across North Carolina have collaborated to create free, self-directed programming for all ages of youth. Check out these topics:
- Back to the Basics – sewing, cooking, table etiquette, baking, and financial management
- Plant Geeks Unite – dig into soils, marvel at and grow plants with wild abandon and say hello to creeping, crawling, diving, and flying friends and so much more
- STEM – Youth learn STEM from their kitchen to their backyard and everywhere in between
- Log on to Leadership – develop time-management, goal setting, conflict management, and public speaking skills
- Down on the Farm – learn about animals even if you aren’t raised on a farm
- Explore Outdoors –learn about the environment right in your own nature patch. Meet scientists and add your discoveries to a real environmental science database!
- 4-H Healthy Habits Family – designed to guide a caregiver and elementary-aged youth through fun and engaging garden-based activities.
Youth who register will receive an email with information on how to log into each program. They are FREE so sign up for as many as you would like to learn about Registration is open until August 1, so log on and explore at your own pace. All modules have hands-on activities to do at home, virtual components, and personal interaction with others. Some have face-to-face visits, live tours, and interviews, while others have connections to worldwide science projects and challenges for youth to earn badges, stickers and other prizes. Find your perfect fit for the whole family.
Virtual Dog Show (University of Kentucky
EBCI (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) 4-H Presents: Family Cultural Circle. Storytime with Cherokee legends and family-friendly Cherokee language lessons! Tuesday at 1:00 pm. You can sign up at
http://go.ncsu.edu/familyculturalcircle
For more information contact Brandi Boaz, 4-H Agent, at brandi_boaz@ncsu.edu or 336-694- 4158 Ext. 3
|
|
Please join us for a two-night mini-series on Equine Management!
Monday August 3rd at 6:30 pm we will cover Forage quality, dry lots, pasture maintenance/establishment
Tuesday August 4th at 6:30 pm we will cover horse health, overall farm management, and wrap up with a Q/A
Following the link below to register for this event:
Please contact Clint Carty for more details
|
|
Social Media Marketing for small Farmers
Without spending a lot of money you can start online marketing for your small farm. Using social media will increase and diversify your clientele. Facebook, with nearly 2 billion active users, is the hands down most used social media platform for small businesses.
45% of all small businesses using social media
use Facebook. Even with the increase in other social media platforms,
80% of small businesses
think that Facebook is still a good platform for small businesses.
How Small Farmer can utilize Social Media
According to
Curtis Stone
, a farmer and farm consultant in Canada, one of the reasons why small farms fail is because they don’t treat their farm like a business. We’ve learned online marketing is a significant lever to help small businesses grow their revenue. Facebook specifically appears to be the most valued social media platform by small businesses to build their brand and drive sales. However, very few farmers are using social media to:
- Start with a Facebook profile. Because Facebook is the most popular social media platform, start here. Use your logo and tagline in your Facebook profile. List your contact information and link to your website.
- Generate your own content 80% of the time, repost another’s 20% of the time. Original content will keep visitors coming back. Keep your content fresh and original as best you can.
- Engage, entertain and inform. Use Social media to further your story. Give visitors a behind the scene look at your operations. Tell engaging stories about a day in the life. Inform about your growing practices, heirloom varieties, heritage breeds.
- Post Images. Studies show images are more likely to generate interaction and go viral. When choosing images, a positive image will bring about positive emotions. Consider using subtitles for video clips since most people mute videos when viewing social media.
- Include links in your images or posts that link back to your website. If you don’t have a website, consider using a sales tool so that visitors can take action to buy your product or sign up for your CSA.
- Respond. Make sure to respond to any comments. Users expect a response and studies show they will view your brand more favorably if you respond to comments.
- Post consistently. If you can swing it, post once a day. At a minimum, post once a week, but aim for 2-4 times per week. Remember fresh content will keep visitors coming back.
- Best time to post on Facebook is between 1 – 4pm.
- Be consistent: Cultivating an active audience requires regular interaction. Post on every one of your platforms at least once a day to keep current and potential customers engaged. And don’t let the comments linger: Treat them like calls on a customer-service hotline, and respond promptly and politely.
- Keep it real: Very few posts should be a hard sell. Instead, distinguish yourself from other. Customers will naturally want to follow you if they believe in your story.
- Spark conversation: Pose meaningful questions to generate engagement. Asking opinions works best for me, as our followers often have diverse views that act as a catalyst for thought-provoking dialogue. This builds a sense of learning and community that I strive to foster.
- Convert followers into customers: Cement the relationship by offering discounts to the first five people who comment on a post or farm tours for new CSA members. Grow your email list with a simple sign-up sheet at the farmers market. When you send out a newsletter, ask people to follow you on Facebook,
Submitted By Anass Banna, Small Farms Agent
|
|
It is summer time and that means it’s time to start preserving all those gardens full of delicious produce. If you use the correct method of canning for the type of food you are trying to preserve, you will safely preserve jars of delicious foods for your pantry for you and your family to enjoy throughout the year. However, if you use the incorrect canning methods, scary things like Clostridium Botulinum can occur. The good news is that it is easy to get this right and enjoy totally safe, worry-free canning...once you understand two simple things.
The first thing to understand is that there are two different kinds of canning. One is boiling water bath canning, which requires no special equipment beyond the canning jars. The other is
pressure canning
, which requires a very specialized piece of equipment called a pressure canner.
Please note that a pressure cooker, such as an Instant Pot, is not the same thing as a pressure canner.
Boiling Water Bath:
A boiling water bath is simply a large pot (you can use a stock pot) with a rack on the bottom. Canning jars are then filled with food, and when canning lids are secured they are completely immersed in boiling water for an amount of time specified in the canning recipe. After processing, as the jars cool, a vacuum seal is formed. A boiling water bath can only heat the food to the temperature of boiling water which is 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
Boiling water bath canning is the easiest way to make shelf-stable jams and pickles right in your own home. It’s very important to note that only high-acid foods can be preserved by water bath canning. This includes most fruit preserves, including jams, jellies, and fruit canned in syrup, and many pickles. Always make sure you are using a safe, tested recipe from a reliable source, such as the
National Center for Home Food Preservation
.. Non-acidic vegetables, meat including poultry and fish, and soup stocks (yes, even vegetable stock) must be processed in a pressure canner, not a boiling water bath.
Pressure Canning: A pressure canner is a heavy-duty piece of equipment with a vent, a pressure gauge, and screw clamps. It is capable of heating the food in the jars to hotter than the temperature of boiling water.
The second thing to understand is which foods can be safely processed by which method. Here's the basic rule: all low acid a.k.a. alkaline foods must be processed in a pressure canner, not a boiling water bath. What does that mean? It means that any unpickled vegetable, including vegetable soup stocks and all animal products, cannot be safely processed in a boiling water bath. You need a pressure canner for them.
The reason for that is that although
botulism bacteria
is killed at the temperature of boiling water, botulism spores can survive that temperature. The spores can be eliminated by temperatures hotter than boiling water, which requires a pressure canner, or by creating an extreme pH (as is the case with vinegary pickled foods and sweet preserves).
Acidic and Non-Acidic Foods: Vegetables in plain or lightly salted water and animal products have a fairly neutral or slightly alkaline ph. Because the pressure canner creates temperatures hotter than boiling water, it can be used to process these non-acidic foods.
All acidic foods - fruits, pickled vegetables, sugar preserves, and tomatoes with a little-added acidity (lemon juice, vinegar, or citric acid), may be safely processed in a boiling water bath. In boiling water bath canning, it is the acidity of the ingredients as much as the heat of the processing that safely preserves the food.
For questions regarding home food preservation processes, or if you’d like to have your
Presto
brand dial gauge tested
for accuracy, give me a call at the Caswell County Cooperative Extension office at (336) 694-4158 or email me at
sonya_patterson@ncsu.edu
to make an appointment.
Please note that my equipment can only test Presto brand gauges
.
Source: National Center for Home Food Preservation
Submitted by Sonya G. Patterson
|
|
Ag/Hort Update 7/16
Hemp
: If you producing a hemp crop this year, we are looking for growers to participate in a Hemp Leaf Nutrient Survey so we can better understand the nutrient requirements of hemp crops. Our first tissue sample would be ASAP and the second occurring in August. The results of these samples would be provided to you and there would be no charge. Once we have the results of your tissue samples our office can work with you to understand the results and form a fertility plan going forward.
Tobacco
: If you are seeing nitrogen deficiency as a result of increased early rainfall leading to leaching, give me a call and we can talk options to try and turn around a crop that wants to ripen very soon. One thing that is universal to keep in mind, is that without soil moisture, nitrogen applications or soil nitrogen reserves are not going to be available to the plant. If you are thinking of doing a downstalk application of liquid nitrogen or another method of application, just remember that water is necessary to get it down into the roots. RAINFALL or IRRIGATION. I would also pull up a few plants and look at where the roots are located before deciding where to apply your fertilizer. I have seen many fields with limited root systems due to variable rainfall and hot/dry cycles. Granular fertilizer placed between plants isn’t likely to be taken up if roots are not growing in that zone.
Always feel free to give Daniel Ostrowski a call if you have any questions or are mulling over a plan and want another opinion on the matter.
|
|
Grow Your Own Pizza Garden!
FREE pizza garden kit, supplies to make your own pizza dough, and a cookbook
Do you love pizza? Would you like to learn how to grow your own pizza garden? If so, this class is for you!
You will receive a FREE pizza garden kit with the plants and supplies to grow a pizza garden and a cookbook! The kit will come
with a special virtual workshop with tomato farmer, Susanne Hawkins, who will give you information on how to grow your perfect pizza garden. She will also give a demonstration on how to prepare a simple pizza dough.
Who: Kids age 5-18
Limit: 30 Kits will be available, please limit 2/family
When: Tuesday July 28, 2020
Kit Pick Up: 8:30-10:30 am, Agricultural Building
Online (Zoom) Workshop: 11:00 am
So what do you need to register?
Registered participants will receive an email from Susanne Hawkins with specific information on pick up information and zoom link!
Deadline to register is: Tuesday, July 23rd at Noon This program is sponsored by Middle Border Forward
As a Caswell Community Impact Project recipient, this opportunity was made available to you through a partnership between Middle Border Forward, Caswell Family Medical Center and The Health Collaborative's Caswell Chapter.
|
|
NC State University provides equal opportunity and affirmative action efforts, and prohibits discrimination, harassment and retaliation based upon a person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, gender identity, genetic information, sexual orientation or veteran status.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
