HONESDALE, PA — Wayne County Commissioners Chair Brian Smith was in the midst of adjourning the March 22 meeting, when he recalled some “devastating news” that he needed, rather than wanted, to announce.

Smith, who is a dairy farmer, reported that contracts of dairy farms in Lancaster and Lebanon counties have been terminated, and there will no longer be a market for their milk after 90 days.

He said this was another hit for milk, for which the farmer’s price has fallen below cost, now under $15 per 100-pound weight. “When you get one of those letters, it’s really bad,” he said. Smith said PA Agriculture Secretary is “working hard” seeking other markets and uses for production from these counties.

Smith said the industry’s problems are complicated, including climate and production. Once-encouraged increases in production have led to over-production. “Inventory management needs to be in place. I believe in a free market, but this is our food supply. Walmart is putting us out of business.”

Grocery giant Walmart has taken advantage of improved milk shelf life, which also allows longer shipping routines. Walmart has established two, 10,000-head herds (and a new processing plant) in Indiana and is now able to move milk to more distant stores, he said.

Smith recommended that shoppers look for the number 42 stamped on milk containers near expiration dates. That number identifies milk produced in Wayne County.

“The rest of us need to be better educated about our food supply. This is a matter of national security,” Commissioner Wendell Kay said.

Three counties impacted

The York County Record reported that farmers in Franklin County as well as Lancaster and Lebanon have been affected by milk purchaser Dean Foods’ “difficult decision” to terminate milk procurement contracts. An estimated 120 farms in several states are believed to be affected.

For those fortunate enough to have an intact contract, the industry is still brutally tough.”We’re unfortunately not able to cover all our bills” with the current price of milk, said Gabrielle Wentworth, dairy farmer and executive assistant for York County Agricultural Business Council. Her contract with Land O’Lakes is still in place, but she has her “fingers crossed” that things will get better in the future.

There’s no single reason for the industry’s struggles, but there are a number of companies, groups and people who have played a significant role in the recent downturn.

Rising costs of consumer goods and services and falling prices of farm commodities have caused local dairy farmers to operate at a loss. Smith and his sons-in-law operate the Smith farm. To stay afloat, all the family’s adults work other jobs. Smith drives a school bus.

Last December, a comprehensive article (tinyurl.com/y7hrlq5w) in The Guardian reported that, “Since 2013, net farm income for U.S. farmers has declined 50%. Median farm income for 2017 is projected to be negative $1,325. And without parity in place [essentially a minimum price floor for farm products], most commodity prices remain below the cost of production.”

In the 1980s, America’s continuing family farm crisis began. A wrecking ball for rural America, it was the worst agricultural economic crisis since the Great Depression. Market prices crashed. Loans were called in. Interest rates doubled overnight. In a quiet epidemic, many farmers, seeing no relief, took their own lives. In the Midwest, many state counseling hotlines for farmers appeared.

Fighting the weather, the economy and government that many farmers feel refuses to address the problems of family farms is stressful. JT Wilcox, a fourth-generation farmer and a Washington state representative, told The Guardian, “I’ve told people that the stress in politics is like a vacation compared to some of the years I spent in our family business. In the four generations we’ve operated, each generation has come within weeks of losing the farm. Few understand the weight of generations and history on people who are faced with economic forces totally out of their control.”

Congress considers mental health help

An effort called Sowing Seeds of Hope (SSOH), which began in Wisconsin, connected uninsured and underinsured farmers in seven Midwest states to affordable behavioral health services. It helped and became the model for a nationwide program called the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). The program was approved as part of the 2008 US Farm Bill, it was never funded and the authorization lapsed.

“Due to the nature of their work and the lack of mental health treatment available, these individuals suffer from higher rates of depression,” says a Facebook statement by Rep. John Faso (R-NY), who represents the New York side of the Upper Delaware Valley. Faso is one of 10 co-sponsors of Rep. Tom Emmer’s (R-MN) Stemming the Tide of Rural Economic Stress and Suicide (STRESS) Act. Emmer said his bill addresses “a suicide crisis,” in Minnesota.

Eliminating the words “and suicide,” Faso lifted his opening line from a statement by another co-sponsor Rep. David Young’s (R-IA). The STRESS act would reauthorize the FRSAN and calls for the creation of competitive grants to state cooperative extension services and Indian tribes to support programs with nonprofit organizations.

“This is an issue that I’ve discussed with members of my Ag. Advisory Committee, and as the market continues to make family farming an increasingly difficult business, it is one that cannot be ignored,” Faso continued in his Facebook remarks.

“Reauthorizing and updating the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network will be an improvement for the agriculture industry and the farmers who are its backbone. The lack of access to mental health services only exacerbates the problem,” Faso concluded.

A report examining suicide rates by occupational group published in July 2016 by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says, “Persons working in the farming, fishing and forestry group had the highest rate of suicide overall.”

On average, 84.5 people per 100,000 in the industry took their own life. Males in the farming, fishing and forestry category committed suicide, at a higher rate of 90.5 deaths per 100,000.

This suicide problem has been growing worldwide. Last August, The New York Times called it a “quiet epidemic.” In 2014, Newsweek reported, “In the U.S., the rate of farmer suicides is just under two times that of the general population. In the U.K., one farmer a week commits suicide. In China, farmers are killing themselves daily to protest the government taking over their prime agricultural lands for urbanization. In France, a farmer dies by suicide every two days. Australia reports one farmer suicide every four days. India yearly reports more than 17,627 farmer suicides.”