(The Center Square) – Washington state loses on average two farms a day, with more than 3,700 farms lost between 2017 and 2022, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture and noted in the recently released “Mental Health and Suicide Prevention for Agricultural Producers and Workers” report compiled by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, secured funding in the 2024 supplemental operating budget to establish the WSDA-led work group that helped create the report.
WSDA’s work group included lawmakers, experts from Washington State University, behavioral health authorities and others, providing recommendations on mental health and suicide prevention for agricultural producers, farm workers and their families.
“The agriculture and rural mental health issues we’ve known were high, and suicide rates were high,” Dent told The Center Square on Tuesday. “I wanted to start looking at what the issue really is.”
The report cites many factors, including the rising cost of agricultural production.
“Economic hardship is just one element that has the potential to exacerbate mental health risks further,” the report notes. “For example, due to a high need for loans, borrowers are required to tolerate high financial risk. Loans that are unable to be paid lead to financial uncertainty and poverty.”
“What some of us have known is that we’ve been overregulated. We’re regulating our agriculture producers into this unaffordable place to be, right?” said Dent, who owns a farm outside Moses Lake.
Dent explained that he rented out half of his farmland to make ends meet this season.
“Because I have animals to feed, in the last couple of years I’d have made more money if I had just paid the water and power and not grown anything,” he said.
“For two decades, Washington’s suicide rate has consistently exceeded the national average. From 2020 to 2022, the suicide rate for agricultural workers in Washington State was 21.1 per 100,000 people, compared with 14.9 per 100,000 for the state’s general population,” the report states.
According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, farmers have suicide rates up to three times higher than the national average.
“A multitude of factors – ranging from weather patterns and commodity prices to questions about legacy, access to farm labor, health care – all negatively impact this vital community of food providers … leading to mental health difficulties and, in the worst case, to death by suicide,” the report says.
“I cannot support a family when I have to pay $15 a bin to process my apples but only get $5 a bin on the market,” one Washington farmer was quoted in the report.
Dent has pushed for a suicide and mental health crisis line dedicated to the agricultural community.
“I knew 988 was a good thing, but I was concerned that people in the agricultural world wouldn’t use it, OK? I really believe that we should maybe have a separate line for agriculture,” he emphasized.
The report recommends integrating “988 and an AgriStress Response hotline staffed with two positions who have Washington-specific agricultural knowledge and agricultural lived experience.”
The Farm Aid hotline is 1-800-FARM-AID. It’s a resource for farmers who need support and connections with various resources and services.
988 is the suicide lifeline. It provides immediate and confidential support for individuals in emotional distress or experiencing a mental health crisis, including those at risk of suicide.
Dent said he has changed his approach to the issue.
“As we got into this, I shifted my focus away from the prevention part, and my focus became solving issues that are pushing people to suicide and pushing people into a mental health crisis,” he explained. “This regulatory environment is way bigger than I thought.”
Regulations affecting farmers and ranchers include changes in labor laws and environmental restrictions.
According to a May 2023 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington pays the highest wages for farmworkers in the nation, with [at that time] an hourly mean wage of $17.84.
As for environmental rules stressing growers, regulations concerning water rights, irrigation, use of pesticides, and soil conservation add compliance costs.
The Climate Commitment Act, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is also causing challenges for farmers.
As reported by The Center Square, Dent was able to get legislation signed into law this year that will provide some relief related to the high cost of diesel for Washington farmers and ranchers.
Dent said he looks forward to working with colleagues across the aisle on recommendations from the report.
“I work really well with Sen. [Tina] Orwall,” he said. “You know, we’ve worked on mental health issues since I got to the Legislature, and she was part of this committee, and the beginning of my action plan is [she] and I are going to sit down and talk about what we’ve learned here and how we can move forward.”
Dent said some Democratic colleagues have been willing to visit his eastern Washington district and talk with members of the agricultural community about their struggles, but regretted most members of the majority have “no clue” what life is like for a Washington farmer.
“It just breaks your heart,” Dent said. “I don’t expect to make dollars that other people do, even though I’ve got a lot invested. But gee, I’d like to break even, right? Maybe even make a few dollars.”
