csmonitor--2020-10-14--Who should care for the forest? In Kenya, the question sparks violence.

“ Globally , ” says Maryama Farah of Natural Justice , a South African nonprofit that specializes in environmental and human rights law , “ we are moving towards the recognition that community co-management and conservation is the way to go , when it comes to conserving forests for future generations.
” Advocates of the Ogiek , who hope to get their day in the African Court on Human and Peoples ’ Rights in late November , point to community-ownership models that have helped other Indigenous communities in Africa live in peace .
“ We are now homeless , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ especially in the Marishoni area , ” he adds , referencing villages neighboring forest areas where forcible evictions were recently carried out .
“ We have now become synonymous with evictions from our ancestral land , ” says Daniel Kobei , a Mau-Ogiek community representative .
Living deep in one of Africa ’ s largest forests , the Ogiek people have spent years in Kenyan and international courts seeking official recognition of their homeland .
Despite a legal victory in 2017 , some 300 Ogiek homes were destroyed by the Kenya Forest Service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three years after a landmark case recognizing its ancestral home , an Indigenous , forest-dwelling community in Kenya continues to face forced eviction .
More than three years after a landmark case recognizing its ancestral home , an Indigenous , forest-dwelling community in Kenya continues to face forced eviction by the government .
Living deep in Kenya ’ s Mau Forest Complex , the Ogiek people spent 12 years in the Kenyan courts seeking legal redress and acknowledgment of their rights to their homeland .
When that proved unfruitful , they turned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years pursuing justice in the African Court on Human and Peoples ’ Rights , in May 2017 , that court handed down a ruling recognizing the community ’ s claim to the Mau Forest Complex .
Despite that landmark ruling , the Ogiek say that they have continued to be driven from their homes .
After years of delays , they hope to air their grievances before the court again during its next regular session in Arusha , Tanzania , in late November .
At stake is the principle of who can best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with all of its resources and expertise , or the people who live there .
“ We have now become synonymous with evictions from our ancestral land , ” says Daniel Kobei , a Mau-Ogiek community representative , citing recent events in which 300 homes were destroyed by Kenya Forest Service personnel .
“ We are now homeless , and have sought shelter among other people , especially in the Marishoni area , ” he adds , referencing villages neighboring forest areas where forcible evictions were recently carried out .
From the Kenyan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are aimed at protecting a vital water resource that has become degraded through human habitation .
George Natembeya , an Interior Ministry official who oversees the Mau forest , has denied that the Ogiek are really a forest-dwelling community .
During a community meeting this summer , he accused some members of the Ogiek community of trying to turn a profit on their land , according to Kenya ’ s Star newspaper .
“ We know you have sold your own parcels of land and we will soon kick you out to protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The largest native mountain forest in East Africa stretches through Kenya ’ s Rift Valley , about 100 miles northwest of Nairobi , the country ’ s capital .
Covering an area of more than 1,500 square miles , the Mau Forest Complex is also Kenya ’ s largest drainage basin and contains the largest of the country ’ s five water towers .
The Ogiek community says that the forest has been its home for more than a thousand years , and provided its people with wild game , fruit , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known to practice beekeeping , as honey is a big component of their diet .
But this way of life has severely been eroded , especially with the banning of hunting by the Kenyan government in the late 1970s and early 1980s .
Now , the Ogiek have been forced to practice subsistence farming , by growing maize and beans as well as other crops .
The Mau Forest Complex is also the scene of a major environmental disaster .
Due to the felling of trees for lumber , charcoal , and farmland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearly 400 square miles since 2000 .
Commercial logging has introduced fast-growing cypress and pine trees in place of indigenous ones , which has disrupted honey production .
Water , too , has become restricted and contaminated .
And members of the community have speculated that a number of bird , insect , animal , and plant species have reduced .
Elephants , for example , can not feed on cypress leaves and have moved elsewhere .
Of the 50,000 estimated total population of the Ogiek , the vast majority inhabit the Mau @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the Mau Ogiek .
A smaller community lives on Mount Elgon on the border between Kenya and Uganda .
Otherwise , a proportion of its population has since been assimilated into other tribes .
Other Indigenous communities have also allegedly been destroyed by the Kenya Forest Service ( KFS ) recently .
Amnesty International reported that , on July 10 , perhaps as many as 28 homes belonging to the Sengwer – another forest-dwelling Indigenous community – were burned to the ground in another major native forest , Embobut Forest .
All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the country , and the mountainous environment in which families are forced out is already quite chilly .
This “ is a gross violation of really basic human rights , ” says Milka Chepkorir , a member of the Sengwer people and a fellow with Natural Justice , a South African nonprofit that specializes in environmental and human rights law .
And now the evictions are taking place in the middle of the COVID-19 global pandemic , raising health concerns for the displaced communities .
“ These recent evictions have affected us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ms. Chepkorir says , “ because they are taking place in COVID times , when the children are not in school but are playing in the glades.
” Although evictions are intermittent , there seems to have been a protracted period of relative calm and quiet since 2018 , says Ms. Chepkorir .
In January of that year , Robert Kirotich , a Sengwer herdsman was reported to have been gunned down by the KFS guards while tending to his cattle in the forest .
This led to the suspension of the European @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mitigation and Adaptation Programme .
That initiative , launched in June 2016 , aims to promote the enhancement of ecosystem services while improving livelihoods in Mount Elgon and Cherangany Hills – where two of the five water towers in Kenya sit .
( Embobut Forest in Cherangany Hills is where the Sengwer community is allegedly being driven out . )
“ Peace has prevailed for the Sengwer in Embobut Forest following the suspension of this funding , until recently , ” says Ms. Chepkorir , alluding to the ongoing talks for resuming the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may resume have fueled mistrust from the Indigenous community .
The community is doubtful that this financial backing is sufficiently helpful , and attributes its troubles to the availability of donor money .
“ You are bound to find displacements in regions where there are foreign funding for conservation purposes in Kenya , ” claims Mali ole Kaunga , a representative of Il Lakipiak Maasai community , an Indigenous people found in northern Kenya .
Communities in the Kirisia Forest in northern Kenya , says Mr. Kaunga , have been living peacefully there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or the Forest Department getting involved .
However , trouble erupted when the forest management body began demarcating the approximately 140 square miles of this forest .
Mr. Kaunga alleges that the demarcation is driven by the government ’ s pledge to raise the forest cover in Kenya from the current 7.2 % to about 10 % by 2022 .
This has affected a community of about 5,000 people .
Instead of engaging with the community , the government has elected “ a top-down approach , ” says Maryama Farah of Natural Justice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the lack of titled deeds for the land .
Community spokespeople have long complained that a proliferation of fake deeds has resulted in their land being divided .
Last year , the Ogiek called on the Kenyan government to grant a communal deed for land in the Mau forest .
But around the world , she says , there are many examples of amicable , environment-friendly resolutions that empower Indigenous communities to become owner-conservators of the land they inhabit .
For example , community-owned forests have been shown to help in expanding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Namibia , Gambia , and Tanzania .
The same approach is now being employed in Liberia and the Congo .
“ Globally , we are moving towards the recognition that community co-management and conservation is the way to go , when it comes to conserving forests for future generations , ” Ms. Farah adds .
A growing body of evidence now shows that honoring land rights of rural people in forests is the foundation for conserving forests sustainably .
And such community-centered approaches go a long way toward promoting global conservation .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ says Mr. Kaunga , there needs to be a decoupling of funding from conservation issues .
“ The community is open to negotiations , but has not been given the opportunity .
”

“Globally,” says Maryama Farah of Natural Justice, a South African nonprofit that specializes in environmental and human rights law, “we are moving towards the recognition that community co-management and conservation is the way to go, when it comes to conserving forests for future generations.”
Advocates of the Ogiek, who hope to get their day in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in late November, point to community-ownership models that have helped other Indigenous communities in Africa live in peace.
“We are now homeless, and have sought shelter among other people, especially in the Marishoni area,” he adds, referencing villages neighboring forest areas where forcible evictions were recently carried out.
“We have now become synonymous with evictions from our ancestral land,” says Daniel Kobei, a Mau-Ogiek community representative.
Amid debates over deforestation, and its causes and solutions, it’s easy to forget one crucial component of forest stewardship: the Indigenous people who often live there.
Living deep in one of Africa’s largest forests, the Ogiek people have spent years in Kenyan and international courts seeking official recognition of their homeland. Despite a legal victory in 2017, some 300 Ogiek homes were destroyed by the Kenya Forest Service personnel earlier this year.
More than three years after a landmark case recognizing its ancestral home, an Indigenous, forest-dwelling community in Kenya continues to face forced eviction.
More than three years after a landmark case recognizing its ancestral home, an Indigenous, forest-dwelling community in Kenya continues to face forced eviction by the government.
Living deep in Kenya’s Mau Forest Complex, the Ogiek people spent 12 years in the Kenyan courts seeking legal redress and acknowledgment of their rights to their homeland. When that proved unfruitful, they turned to the international stage.
After eight more years pursuing justice in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in May 2017, that court handed down a ruling recognizing the community’s claim to the Mau Forest Complex.
Why We Wrote This Amid debates over deforestation, and its causes and solutions, it’s easy to forget one crucial component of forest stewardship: the Indigenous people who often live there.
Despite that landmark ruling, the Ogiek say that they have continued to be driven from their homes. After years of delays, they hope to air their grievances before the court again during its next regular session in Arusha, Tanzania, in late November. At stake is the principle of who can best protect a forest: the government, with all of its resources and expertise, or the people who live there.
“We have now become synonymous with evictions from our ancestral land,” says Daniel Kobei, a Mau-Ogiek community representative, citing recent events in which 300 homes were destroyed by Kenya Forest Service personnel.
“We are now homeless, and have sought shelter among other people, especially in the Marishoni area,” he adds, referencing villages neighboring forest areas where forcible evictions were recently carried out.
From the Kenyan government’s perspective, the evictions are aimed at protecting a vital water resource that has become degraded through human habitation. George Natembeya, an Interior Ministry official who oversees the Mau forest, has denied that the Ogiek are really a forest-dwelling community.
During a community meeting this summer, he accused some members of the Ogiek community of trying to turn a profit on their land, according to Kenya’s Star newspaper. “We know you have sold your own parcels of land and we will soon kick you out to protect water sources,” he said.
Among the trees
The largest native mountain forest in East Africa stretches through Kenya’s Rift Valley, about 100 miles northwest of Nairobi, the country’s capital. Covering an area of more than 1,500 square miles, the Mau Forest Complex is also Kenya’s largest drainage basin and contains the largest of the country’s five water towers.
The Ogiek community says that the forest has been its home for more than a thousand years, and provided its people with wild game, fruit, and medicinal herbs. The Ogiek are also known to practice beekeeping, as honey is a big component of their diet.
But this way of life has severely been eroded, especially with the banning of hunting by the Kenyan government in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now, the Ogiek have been forced to practice subsistence farming, by growing maize and beans as well as other crops.
The Mau Forest Complex is also the scene of a major environmental disaster. Due to the felling of trees for lumber, charcoal, and farmland, that forest ecosystem has shrunk by nearly 400 square miles since 2000.
Commercial logging has introduced fast-growing cypress and pine trees in place of indigenous ones, which has disrupted honey production. Water, too, has become restricted and contaminated. And members of the community have speculated that a number of bird, insect, animal, and plant species have reduced. Elephants, for example, cannot feed on cypress leaves and have moved elsewhere.
Courtesy of Ogiek Peoples' Development Program View caption Hide caption Recent evictions of the Ogiek community from the Mau Forest Complex have led to destruction of property.
Into the cold
Of the 50,000 estimated total population of the Ogiek, the vast majority inhabit the Mau Forest Complex and are also referred to as the Mau Ogiek.
A smaller community lives on Mount Elgon on the border between Kenya and Uganda. Otherwise, a proportion of its population has since been assimilated into other tribes.
Other Indigenous communities have also allegedly been destroyed by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) recently. Amnesty International reported that, on July 10, perhaps as many as 28 homes belonging to the Sengwer – another forest-dwelling Indigenous community – were burned to the ground in another major native forest, Embobut Forest.
All this is happening during the coldest season in the country, and the mountainous environment in which families are forced out is already quite chilly. This “is a gross violation of really basic human rights,” says Milka Chepkorir, a member of the Sengwer people and a fellow with Natural Justice, a South African nonprofit that specializes in environmental and human rights law.
And now the evictions are taking place in the middle of the COVID-19 global pandemic, raising health concerns for the displaced communities.
“These recent evictions have affected us really differently this time round,” Ms. Chepkorir says, “because they are taking place in COVID times, when the children are not in school but are playing in the glades.”
Foreign aid or foreign hindrance?
Although evictions are intermittent, there seems to have been a protracted period of relative calm and quiet since 2018, says Ms. Chepkorir.
In January of that year, Robert Kirotich, a Sengwer herdsman was reported to have been gunned down by the KFS guards while tending to his cattle in the forest. This led to the suspension of the European Union-funded Water Towers Protection and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Programme.
That initiative, launched in June 2016, aims to promote the enhancement of ecosystem services while improving livelihoods in Mount Elgon and Cherangany Hills – where two of the five water towers in Kenya sit. (Embobut Forest in Cherangany Hills is where the Sengwer community is allegedly being driven out.)
“Peace has prevailed for the Sengwer in Embobut Forest following the suspension of this funding, until recently,” says Ms. Chepkorir, alluding to the ongoing talks for resuming the EU funding.
Indications that the funding may resume have fueled mistrust from the Indigenous community. The community is doubtful that this financial backing is sufficiently helpful, and attributes its troubles to the availability of donor money.
“You are bound to find displacements in regions where there are foreign funding for conservation purposes in Kenya,” claims Mali ole Kaunga, a representative of Il Lakipiak Maasai community, an Indigenous people found in northern Kenya.
Communities in the Kirisia Forest in northern Kenya, says Mr. Kaunga, have been living peacefully there for centuries, without either the KFS or the Forest Department getting involved. However, trouble erupted when the forest management body began demarcating the approximately 140 square miles of this forest.
Mr. Kaunga alleges that the demarcation is driven by the government’s pledge to raise the forest cover in Kenya from the current 7.2% to about 10% by 2022. This has affected a community of about 5,000 people.
Instead of engaging with the community, the government has elected “a top-down approach,” says Maryama Farah of Natural Justice.
One major hurdle for the Ogiek is the lack of titled deeds for the land. Community spokespeople have long complained that a proliferation of fake deeds has resulted in their land being divided. Last year, the Ogiek called on the Kenyan government to grant a communal deed for land in the Mau forest.
A better way?
But around the world, she says, there are many examples of amicable, environment-friendly resolutions that empower Indigenous communities to become owner-conservators of the land they inhabit.
For example, community-owned forests have been shown to help in expanding natural forest protection in African countries such as Namibia, Gambia, and Tanzania. The same approach is now being employed in Liberia and the Congo.
“Globally, we are moving towards the recognition that community co-management and conservation is the way to go, when it comes to conserving forests for future generations,” Ms. Farah adds.
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A growing body of evidence now shows that honoring land rights of rural people in forests is the foundation for conserving forests sustainably. And such community-centered approaches go a long way toward promoting global conservation.
If progress is to be made, says Mr. Kaunga, there needs to be a decoupling of funding from conservation issues. “The community is open to negotiations, but has not been given the opportunity.”


csmonitor--2020-10-14--Remedies for a global recession? That’s the idea.

Economists almost everywhere are scratching their heads .
Why is the world economy performing better than predicted six months ago after the pandemic stopped much of commerce ?
Total output has not contracted as much as expected .
And the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) even sees global growth of 5.2 % next year .
Which of the many theories in the “ dismal science ” called economics are actually working ?
The IMF cites “ unprecedented ” government support of $ 6 trillion to both businesses and households .
Others point to debt relief offered by wealthier nations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well-targeted safety net programs .
Still others commend workers and employers for coping with the coronavirus and trying to maintain income .
Such a debate is the point .
Each major economic crisis – from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Great Recession a decade ago – has generated new ideas and a broader consensus about what sustains an economy .
The coronavirus-induced recession will be no different .
Economic progress has long been linked to progress in practical , proven ideas that transcend old debates .
“ If the economics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world ’ s biggest problems – from pandemics and climate change to deglobalization and inequality – economists must stop tweaking the edges of their models and think outside the box , ” writes Financial Times columnist Rana Foroohar .
A hint of this can be seen in the latest Nobel Prize in economic sciences .
It was awarded Monday to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson of Stanford University for their insights on the best rules for bidding in auctions , from homebuying to government sales of radio-wave spectrum .
While their work may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the prize committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences makes a larger point : “ Their discoveries have benefited sellers , buyers , and taxpayers around the world.
” In other words , their ideas had universal application that transcends controversy .
The 2018 Nobel laureate in economic sciences , Paul Romer of New York University , says his own work on “ the economics of ideas ” shows that progress is always possible , “ even when the news is grim.
” As the world economy has become driven more by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and , yes , economics , these ideas can sustain growth in a world where resources are scarce , Dr. Romer says .
And they come with a good side effect .
“ We start to see other people as allies because if they discover something , we can benefit from their discovery.
” We will have a “ better sense of connecting with , and appreciating , others ; not seeing them as hostiles.
” This path of progress requires imagination , courage , and humility .
“ Imagination helps us see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Courage lets us try them when we are uncertain .
Having committed , humility prepares to revise as new evidence comes in.
” From the data-watching analysis by the IMF and others , the news about the pandemic ’ s effects does seem grim .
Poverty is rising after the worst global downturn since the Great Depression .
“ The ascent out of this calamity is likely to be long , uneven , and highly uncertain , ” writes Gita Gopinath , the IMF ’ s chief economist .
Yet every big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas – and with them , a spirit of collaboration .
Head-scratching economists might even start to agree .

Economists almost everywhere are scratching their heads. Why is the world economy performing better than predicted six months ago after the pandemic stopped much of commerce? Total output has not contracted as much as expected. And the International Monetary Fund (IMF) even sees global growth of 5.2% next year. Which of the many theories in the “dismal science” called economics are actually working?
The IMF cites “unprecedented” government support of $6 trillion to both businesses and households. Others point to debt relief offered by wealthier nations to 73 poor countries. Some praise well-targeted safety net programs. Still others commend workers and employers for coping with the coronavirus and trying to maintain income.
Such a debate is the point. Each major economic crisis – from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Great Recession a decade ago – has generated new ideas and a broader consensus about what sustains an economy. The coronavirus-induced recession will be no different. Economic progress has long been linked to progress in practical, proven ideas that transcend old debates.
“If the economics profession is going to help solve the world’s biggest problems – from pandemics and climate change to deglobalization and inequality – economists must stop tweaking the edges of their models and think outside the box,” writes Financial Times columnist Rana Foroohar.
A hint of this can be seen in the latest Nobel Prize in economic sciences. It was awarded Monday to Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson of Stanford University for their insights on the best rules for bidding in auctions, from homebuying to government sales of radio-wave spectrum. While their work may seem narrow to a particular activity, the prize committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences makes a larger point: “Their discoveries have benefited sellers, buyers, and taxpayers around the world.” In other words, their ideas had universal application that transcends controversy.
The 2018 Nobel laureate in economic sciences, Paul Romer of New York University, says his own work on “the economics of ideas” shows that progress is always possible, “even when the news is grim.” As the world economy has become driven more by new ideas in technology, governance, and, yes, economics, these ideas can sustain growth in a world where resources are scarce, Dr. Romer says.
And they come with a good side effect. “We start to see other people as allies because if they discover something, we can benefit from their discovery.” We will have a “better sense of connecting with, and appreciating, others; not seeing them as hostiles.”
This path of progress requires imagination, courage, and humility. “Imagination helps us see new possibilities,” he notes. “Courage lets us try them when we are uncertain. Having committed, humility prepares to revise as new evidence comes in.”
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
From the data-watching analysis by the IMF and others, the news about the pandemic’s effects does seem grim. Poverty is rising after the worst global downturn since the Great Depression. “The ascent out of this calamity is likely to be long, uneven, and highly uncertain,” writes Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s chief economist.
Yet every big shift in the economy can bring fresh ideas – and with them, a spirit of collaboration. Head-scratching economists might even start to agree.


csmonitor--2020-10-14--Homegrown relief: Farming communities tackle rise in suicides

“ We ’ ve always known that stress , emotional health , behavioral health in agriculture are always connected to bigger financial and legal stressors , ” says Farm Aid ’ s Alicia Harvie .
“ They have to do with farm strategies that are not centered around the well-being and livelihood of people who grow our food.
” Two years later , the support group started that day operates as the Farmer Angel Network .
Along with other advocacy organizations , farm boards , agricultural extension workers , and politicians , they are mobilizing to reverse what has become @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disturbing trends – one , they say , that should be forcing a national reckoning over how this country grows , and values , food .
Millions of dollars in debt , Randy Roecker had slid into a darkness that he was unable to shake .
Despite years of careful planning , his family ’ s dairy farm was hit hard by the 2008 recession .
So he struggled alone – until a friend and fellow farmer took his own life in 2018 .
Mr. Roecker broke down in tears on the Sunday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the men gathered there , “ You have no idea what it ’ s like when your world is collapsing.
” One humid afternoon this past July , on the gravel driveway of Lime Ridge Ag Supply in the rolling green heart of America ’ s dairy land , a small group of masked volunteers delivered sugar cones and goody bags to farmers in big trucks .
The purpose of this “ drive-through ice cream social , ” according to the promotional flyer , was to celebrate the farmers of Sauk County , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thank you ” and recognize that “ as ‘ essential workers ’ farmers work hard every day to feed our nation.
” But the goody bag materials belied an additional purpose , one that the Farmer Angel Network , the grassroots group that organized this get-together , has been promoting to increasing attention over the past two years .
Along with the advertisements for seed companies and tractor suppliers , and the $ 5 off coupon for the Branding Iron Roadhouse and the foam cow stress toy , provided by a local veterinarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wellness resources – and pamphlets about how to keep loved ones from killing themselves .
“ We needed to do something , ” says Dorothy Harms , a Farmer Angel Network volunteer who helped pass out ice cream and who , with her husband , raises beef and dairy cows on the land his family has owned for 140 years .
“ We can ’ t afford to lose more lives.
” For the past decade , Ms. Harms and others living in agricultural communities across the United States have watched with alarm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have killed themselves .
Although clear statistics are difficult to find , the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says those working in farming are among the most likely to take their own lives , compared with other occupations .
Recently The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting confirmed that some 450 farmers killed themselves in nine Midwestern states between 2014 and 2018 – a number that is likely higher in reality , the group says , because many suicides are classified as farm accidents .
“ Farmer suicide has reached all farming communities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tracy Brandel , a dairy farmer who also works as a senior agricultural program specialist at the Wisconsin Farm Center , which helps farmers with everything from financial planning to organic certifications to mental health counseling .
“ You don ’ t have to go too far to see how it ’ s affected someone ’ s life.
” Now , a growing coalition of grassroots groups such as Ms. Harms ’ Farmer Angel Network , along with farm boards , advocacy organizations , agricultural extension workers , and politicians , is mobilizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. With everything from local support networks to crisis hotlines , wellness podcasts , and suicide awareness trainings , they hope they can reverse what has become one of rural America ’ s more disturbing trends – one , they say , that should be forcing a national reckoning over how this country grows , and values , food .
It took Randy Roecker nearly 20 years of planning and saving before he was able to expand his family dairy in the way he had been dreaming about since he was at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a cohort of local farm kids at the big city university , and after he graduated he was eager to bring what he had learned about modernization and economies of scale back to the small family dairy in Loganville , a farm town about an hour away from Madison .
He toured larger operations around the state .
After some years he hired a business planner .
And then , in 2006 , he invested $ 3 million in expanding the operation from 50 or so animals into a 300-cow farm .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the National Dairy Promotion & Research Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ( USDA ) , a position for those considered regional leaders in the industry .
Then the recession hit .
His loan got sold to a bigger bank .
Milk prices tanked .
His farm was losing around $ 30,000 a month .
And Mr. Roecker slid into a darkness that he was unable to shake .
“ I had borrowed millions of dollars and then I felt the world was crashing down around me because of the worldwide economy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought I was a failure.
” For years , he tried to keep it to himself .
Farmers , he knew , were a hardy and stoic bunch .
His neighbors wouldn ’ t have much time for feelings , he thought – a sentiment shared by many of his colleagues , according to a recent American Farm Bureau Federation study , which found that nearly 60 % of farmers say their friends and neighbors attach a great deal of stigma to mental health issues .
And so Mr. Roecker struggled alone .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ friend and fellow dairy farmer took his own life , not far from Mr. Roecker ’ s farm .
The following Sunday , a group of men was talking about it outside St. Peter ’ s Lutheran Church , a place where , back in the day , the sermons and social events had revolved around agriculture .
That was before the dairy farms began closing in record numbers in this state , nearly two a day in 2019 , according to the USDA .
Mr. Roecker remembers walking up to the group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You just don ’ t understand , ” he recalls saying to them .
“ You have no idea what it ’ s like when your world is collapsing.
” He started sharing his financial stress , the feelings of depression , and how he had thought many times about killing himself .
The men listened , and as they talked Mr. Roecker had an idea .
He contacted the head of his men ’ s group at church and asked whether he might hold an informal gathering for farmers and neighbors to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meeting in church bulletins around the county .
Volunteers arranged for sandwiches and set up folding chairs .
Mr. Roecker wasn ’ t sure if anyone would come .
But some 40 people showed up for the first meeting , along with a local news reporter .
Soon , people were driving several hours to join the group , looking for a safe space away from their own communities to find hope and healing .
“ We sat around the tables ; we introduced ourselves , ” he recalls .
“ We wanted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of tears shed.
” He decided with some of his neighbors that they should formalize the group , which they eventually called the Farmer Angel Network .
Soon other churches in the region began holding similar get-togethers , and farmers began forming similar collaborations .
Regional , and then national newspapers , started writing about the meetings , and Mr. Roecker got calls from television networks and magazines .
Organizers of Willie Nelson ’ s Farm Aid benefit concert asked him to attend as a special guest – and he found himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other performers on the main stage .
“ It was bizarre , ” he says .
“ When I started on this , I had no idea this was going to happen .
I just thought it would be a source of comfort for our area .
I thought it would be a source of comfort that we could talk this out at church .
... Now we realize there is such a need , across the whole country.
” New pressures of farming , on top of the old Farming , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ profession .
It is physically demanding , often solitary , and dependent on the mercurial weather – all without the backstop of a guaranteed salary , health insurance , or other sorts of financial security .
It is also , say those in the industry , more than a job .
For many , farming is a way of life – an identity and an inheritance .
According to 2017 census data , more than three-quarters of farms are generational – meaning that the vast majority of farmers are the children and grandchildren @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a unique subculture in farming , ” says Eric Karbowski , a community behavioral health educator with Michigan State University Extension who focuses on farm stress .
“ It ’ s an incredibly proud subculture.
” Which means that when things start to go badly , the emotional impact can be huge .
And over the past few years , the normal pressures of agricultural life have been compounded by a combination of structural financial strains , climate change-related disruptions , and commodity pricing fluctuations .
Using USDA data , Farm Aid estimates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drop in net income between 2013 and 2018 .
By 2019 , money made from farming made up only a small percentage of household income for those who own what the USDA classifies as small farms , those operations that have less than $ 350,000 in gross revenue .
Instead , these households depend on nonfarm earnings , along with government payments .
That ’ s telling , say advocates , because these small farms make up approximately 90 % of the country ’ s farms overall .
Meanwhile , a small number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cut of the country ’ s farm income .
Dairy farmers , such as Mr. Roecker , face particular financial hardship .
The vast majority of milk in the U.S. is sold as a commodity through cooperatives or directly to processors , and its price is determined by a combination of federal regulations , market forces , and regional agreements .
Often farmers do not know what they will be paid until weeks after the milk leaves their farm .
Recently , dairy farmers have been getting paychecks that offer less than the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it takes to break even .
But unlike other commodity producers , who might decide to leave a field fallow for a season , it ’ s hard for dairy farmers to lower production .
They can ’ t just stop milking a cow , and they have to feed all of their animals .
“ Because our farmers are always living on the edge of poverty , as soon as the price goes up they need to get more cows and more milk to get themselves out of debt , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” says Sarah Gardner , associate director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College in Williamstown , Massachusetts , who made a documentary about New England ’ s declining dairy industry .
“ But then it produces a glut and the price goes down .
...
There ’ s constant volatility.
” In early 2018 , Agri-Mark , one of the largest dairy co-ops in the Northeast , mailed a suicide prevention pamphlet to its farmers along with their milk checks .
“ Farmers as a whole – they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the bootstraps , put my head down , work harder and we ’ ll get through this , ” says Rick Hummell , spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture , Trade and Consumer Protection .
“ Well , that just hasn ’ t been working anymore .
For four or five years , [ they ’ re ] not even earning enough money to pay for the work [ they ’ re ] doing .
And for a lot of them , their father and their grandfather and their great-grandfather were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They don ’ t want to be the one who lost the farm .
Hence the depression and the suicide we ’ ve been hearing about.
” The number of dairy farms in New England dropped from 20,000 in 1959 to fewer than 2,000 in 2012 .
Today Massachusetts has only 117 dairy farms remaining , says Dr. Gardner .
Across the U.S. , according to the USDA , the number of licensed dairy herds dropped from 70,375 in 2003 to 34,187 in 2019 .
But increasingly , there are places farmers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says that growers experiencing excessive stress are calling the Wisconsin Farm Center , which is part of the state ’ s agriculture department , in greater numbers .
The center offers farmers $ 100 vouchers to pay for counseling .
Last year the state government allocated $ 100,000 for the center to bolster its wellness programming .
Advocates say they are also working on forming a network of therapists who are familiar with farming , often people who are farmers or from farm families themselves .
This summer , the Wisconsin Farm Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wellness , called “ Rural Realities.
” It also started a 24/7 farmer counseling help line and paid for radio ads intended to reduce the stigma associated with depression .
And it created new ways to train people who work with and around farmers – the service providers , the veterinarians , and so on – to help them recognize individuals at risk of taking their own lives .
The federal government is getting involved , too .
In 2018 , Congress earmarked $ 2 million to the USDA ’ s Farm and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regional collaborations to help those working in farming .
This year , it increased funding to $ 28.7 million over three years .
In the Northeast , a coalition of agricultural groups , including Farm Aid and the National Young Farmers Coalition , is using that money to build a network of service providers , along with a website that will let farmers easily search for wellness and mental health resources .
It will also continue to build out the Farm Aid hotline , which the group started during the farm crisis of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ land prices and record farm foreclosures .
Calls to the hotline have increased dramatically over the past two years , says Alicia Harvie , Farm Aid ’ s advocacy and farmer services director .
There was a 109 % spike in calls in 2018 compared with the year before ; 2019 was about the same .
This year , with the COVID-19 pandemic , calls increased again .
“ We should be alarmed that the people who grow our food are struggling to feed their families , ” Ms. Harvie says .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are or are not prioritizing in our economy and our society .
...
It ’ s literally human life that ’ s becoming at stake with this system.
” This is why John Peck , executive director of the Wisconsin-based organization Family Farm Defenders , argues for a different approach to the growing stress he sees among his neighbors .
Mental health resources are all well and good .
But , he notes , even if you can talk someone off a cliff , “ if they ’ re back looking at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to change things.
” The real challenges to farmer wellness , he says , stem from agricultural policies that benefit large farms , opaque pricing systems , and production methods that move control from farmers to agricultural corporations .
Mr. Peck and some others have been pushing for a new system of milk purchasing and pricing , for instance , that would be closer to Canada ’ s system of supply-side management with quotas .
This would allow dairy farmers to have a living wage , he says .
“ We have state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money for rural mental health services , ” Mr. Peck says .
“ And farmers are like , ‘ It ’ s the underlying socioeconomic conditions that are causing this.
’ ” Caitlin Arnold Stephano , the national chapter manager for the National Young Farmers Coalition , an advocacy group , agrees .
“ The systemic issues are huge , ” she says .
“ Agriculture today in the U.S. is a product of policy change.
” But those issues are complicated and political – and with government programs such as Farm and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work on services only , not policy .
“ We ’ ve always known that stress , emotional health , behavioral health in agriculture are always connected to bigger financial and legal stressors , ” says Ms. Harvie , of Farm Aid .
“ They have to do with farm strategies that are not centered around the well-being and livelihood of people who grow our food.
” Jeff Ditzenberger says this is why he always tells his fellow farmers that you can ’ t control anything but your attitude .
Mr. Ditzenberger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Madison , and he has sold farm machinery in the region for about 20 years .
He was the president of the Green County Farm Bureau for 10 years , and jokes that he and his dog , Luke , also have their own sweet corn business , Luke ’ s Luscious Corn .
He is one of the area ’ s more outspoken survivors of a suicide attempt .
Nearly 30 years ago , he brought a suicide note to an abandoned house and set it on fire , planning to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , had just become too much , as were the images he clung to as a military veteran .
But something kept him from following through .
He was convicted of felony arson , and spent nine months in jail .
He began his organization – Talking , Understanding , Growing , Supporting , or TUGS – in 2013 when he saw how many people in his community were struggling .
“ I wanted a chance for people to meet other people that they might relate to , ” he says .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Smith tells his story and you think , oh my God , that ’ s what I ’ ve been through.
” Mr. Ditzenberger ’ s approach is straightforward .
He believes that listening , engaging , and spreading kindness are key to helping alleviate what he agrees is an epidemic in his region .
He tries to convince people to stop and notice their neighbors , to ask what ’ s going on , to really listen .
He is a proponent of the QPR approach to suicide prevention – an acronym @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and refer.
” But really , he wants people to know that he – and others – care .
He has brought this message to growing numbers of training sessions and public talks .
“ I don ’ t want people to feel like I felt the last day before my suicide attempt , ” he says .
“ We all need to take a step back and remember that everybody is facing a battle , and we just need to be a bit nicer to each other.
” This is exactly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the Farmer Angel Network ’ s dairy socials .
Yes , the group wants to spread information about crisis hotlines and suicide prevention resources , she says .
But as much as that , they wanted to build a sense of community .
“ We tried to put a positive spin about bringing farm families together , ” she says .
“ Fellowship in any of these situations is so good .
Farmers get together and they start talking and they tell you about the tractor that broke down and the cow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got rained on .
At the very least , you get talking to the other guys and you think , oh , my life isn ’ t so bad .
”

Farm families are upending the go-it-alone traditions of a shrinking occupation – addressing a rise in mental illness by taking care of each other.
“We’ve always known that stress, emotional health, behavioral health in agriculture are always connected to bigger financial and legal stressors,” says Farm Aid’s Alicia Harvie. “They have to do with farm strategies that are not centered around the well-being and livelihood of people who grow our food.”
Two years later, the support group started that day operates as the Farmer Angel Network. Along with other advocacy organizations, farm boards, agricultural extension workers, and politicians, they are mobilizing to reverse what has become one of rural America’s more disturbing trends – one, they say, that should be forcing a national reckoning over how this country grows, and values, food.
Millions of dollars in debt, Randy Roecker had slid into a darkness that he was unable to shake. Despite years of careful planning, his family’s dairy farm was hit hard by the 2008 recession. So he struggled alone – until a friend and fellow farmer took his own life in 2018. Mr. Roecker broke down in tears on the Sunday afterward outside his church, explaining to the men gathered there, “You have no idea what it’s like when your world is collapsing.”
One humid afternoon this past July, on the gravel driveway of Lime Ridge Ag Supply in the rolling green heart of America’s dairy land, a small group of masked volunteers delivered sugar cones and goody bags to farmers in big trucks.
The purpose of this “drive-through ice cream social,” according to the promotional flyer, was to celebrate the farmers of Sauk County, Wisconsin – a way to say “thank you” and recognize that “as ‘essential workers’ farmers work hard every day to feed our nation.”
But the goody bag materials belied an additional purpose, one that the Farmer Angel Network, the grassroots group that organized this get-together, has been promoting to increasing attention over the past two years. Along with the advertisements for seed companies and tractor suppliers, and the $5 off coupon for the Branding Iron Roadhouse and the foam cow stress toy, provided by a local veterinarian, each care package contained information about wellness resources – and pamphlets about how to keep loved ones from killing themselves.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption “We needed to do something. We can’t afford to lose more lives,” says Dorothy Harms (left), a member of the Farmer Angel Network, who is narrating a hayride to raise money for the nonprofit that helps farmers deal with mental health issues.
Why We Wrote This Farm families are upending the go-it-alone traditions of a shrinking occupation – addressing a rise in mental illness by taking care of each other.
“We needed to do something,” says Dorothy Harms, a Farmer Angel Network volunteer who helped pass out ice cream and who, with her husband, raises beef and dairy cows on the land his family has owned for 140 years. “We can’t afford to lose more lives.”
For the past decade, Ms. Harms and others living in agricultural communities across the United States have watched with alarm as a growing number of their neighbors have killed themselves. Although clear statistics are difficult to find, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says those working in farming are among the most likely to take their own lives, compared with other occupations. Recently The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting confirmed that some 450 farmers killed themselves in nine Midwestern states between 2014 and 2018 – a number that is likely higher in reality, the group says, because many suicides are classified as farm accidents.
“Farmer suicide has reached all farming communities and all farming sectors,” says Tracy Brandel, a dairy farmer who also works as a senior agricultural program specialist at the Wisconsin Farm Center, which helps farmers with everything from financial planning to organic certifications to mental health counseling. “You don’t have to go too far to see how it’s affected someone’s life.”
Now, a growing coalition of grassroots groups such as Ms. Harms’ Farmer Angel Network, along with farm boards, advocacy organizations, agricultural extension workers, and politicians, is mobilizing to offer relief to farmers across the U.S. With everything from local support networks to crisis hotlines, wellness podcasts, and suicide awareness trainings, they hope they can reverse what has become one of rural America’s more disturbing trends – one, they say, that should be forcing a national reckoning over how this country grows, and values, food.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption A cornhusk angel stands by the booth of the Farmer Angel Network, a nonprofit that helps prevent farmer suicides, during a festival in Witwen, Wisconsin.
Safe spaces amid stigma
It took Randy Roecker nearly 20 years of planning and saving before he was able to expand his family dairy in the way he had been dreaming about since he was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He was one of a cohort of local farm kids at the big city university, and after he graduated he was eager to bring what he had learned about modernization and economies of scale back to the small family dairy in Loganville, a farm town about an hour away from Madison. He toured larger operations around the state. After some years he hired a business planner. And then, in 2006, he invested $3 million in expanding the operation from 50 or so animals into a 300-cow farm. That same year he was appointed to the National Dairy Promotion & Research Board of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a position for those considered regional leaders in the industry.
Then the recession hit. His loan got sold to a bigger bank. Milk prices tanked. His farm was losing around $30,000 a month. And Mr. Roecker slid into a darkness that he was unable to shake.
“I had borrowed millions of dollars and then I felt the world was crashing down around me because of the worldwide economy,” he says. “I thought I was a failure.”
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Jeff Ditzenberger climbs out of a tractor on his farm where he grows corn and beans in Argyl, Wisconsin.
For years, he tried to keep it to himself. Farmers, he knew, were a hardy and stoic bunch. His neighbors wouldn’t have much time for feelings, he thought – a sentiment shared by many of his colleagues, according to a recent American Farm Bureau Federation study, which found that nearly 60% of farmers say their friends and neighbors attach a great deal of stigma to mental health issues.
And so Mr. Roecker struggled alone.
Then, in October 2018, a friend and fellow dairy farmer took his own life, not far from Mr. Roecker’s farm. The following Sunday, a group of men was talking about it outside St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, a place where, back in the day, the sermons and social events had revolved around agriculture. That was before the dairy farms began closing in record numbers in this state, nearly two a day in 2019, according to the USDA.
Mr. Roecker remembers walking up to the group and breaking down in tears.
“You just don’t understand,” he recalls saying to them. “You have no idea what it’s like when your world is collapsing.”
He started sharing his financial stress, the feelings of depression, and how he had thought many times about killing himself. The men listened, and as they talked Mr. Roecker had an idea. He contacted the head of his men’s group at church and asked whether he might hold an informal gathering for farmers and neighbors to discuss their struggles.
He advertised the meeting in church bulletins around the county. Volunteers arranged for sandwiches and set up folding chairs. Mr. Roecker wasn’t sure if anyone would come. But some 40 people showed up for the first meeting, along with a local news reporter. Soon, people were driving several hours to join the group, looking for a safe space away from their own communities to find hope and healing.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption A license plate on a truck in Wisconsin marks it as a farm vehicle.
“We sat around the tables; we introduced ourselves,” he recalls. “We wanted to share stories. There were a lot of tears shed.”
He decided with some of his neighbors that they should formalize the group, which they eventually called the Farmer Angel Network. Soon other churches in the region began holding similar get-togethers, and farmers began forming similar collaborations.
Regional, and then national newspapers, started writing about the meetings, and Mr. Roecker got calls from television networks and magazines. Organizers of Willie Nelson’s Farm Aid benefit concert asked him to attend as a special guest – and he found himself sitting next to musician Dave Matthews and other performers on the main stage.
“It was bizarre,” he says. “When I started on this, I had no idea this was going to happen. I just thought it would be a source of comfort for our area. I thought it would be a source of comfort that we could talk this out at church. ... Now we realize there is such a need, across the whole country.”
New pressures of farming, on top of the old
Farming, of course, has never been an easy profession. It is physically demanding, often solitary, and dependent on the mercurial weather – all without the backstop of a guaranteed salary, health insurance, or other sorts of financial security.
It is also, say those in the industry, more than a job. For many, farming is a way of life – an identity and an inheritance. According to 2017 census data, more than three-quarters of farms are generational – meaning that the vast majority of farmers are the children and grandchildren of farmers.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Corn is harvested on a farm in Sauk County, Wisconsin, in late September.
“There’s a unique subculture in farming,” says Eric Karbowski, a community behavioral health educator with Michigan State University Extension who focuses on farm stress. “It’s an incredibly proud subculture.”
Which means that when things start to go badly, the emotional impact can be huge.
And over the past few years, the normal pressures of agricultural life have been compounded by a combination of structural financial strains, climate change-related disruptions, and commodity pricing fluctuations. Using USDA data, Farm Aid estimates that farmers saw a nearly 50% drop in net income between 2013 and 2018.
By 2019, money made from farming made up only a small percentage of household income for those who own what the USDA classifies as small farms, those operations that have less than $350,000 in gross revenue. Instead, these households depend on nonfarm earnings, along with government payments.
That’s telling, say advocates, because these small farms make up approximately 90% of the country’s farms overall.
Meanwhile, a small number of large-scale agricultural operations took an ever-bigger cut of the country’s farm income.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Hay bales are painted with “God Bless America” at a dairy farm in Reedsburg, Wisconsin.
Can't just stop milking a cow
Dairy farmers, such as Mr. Roecker, face particular financial hardship. The vast majority of milk in the U.S. is sold as a commodity through cooperatives or directly to processors, and its price is determined by a combination of federal regulations, market forces, and regional agreements. Often farmers do not know what they will be paid until weeks after the milk leaves their farm.
Recently, dairy farmers have been getting paychecks that offer less than the $20 per 100 pounds of milk that it takes to break even. But unlike other commodity producers, who might decide to leave a field fallow for a season, it’s hard for dairy farmers to lower production. They can’t just stop milking a cow, and they have to feed all of their animals.
(This is why earlier this year, when the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the milk market to at-home buyers rather than institutional purchasers, many dairy farmers who had contracted with schools and restaurants had to dump their milk. There was no way for them to stop producing it, and no safe way to store it.)
“Because our farmers are always living on the edge of poverty, as soon as the price goes up they need to get more cows and more milk to get themselves out of debt, and everyone does that at the same time,” says Sarah Gardner, associate director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, who made a documentary about New England’s declining dairy industry. “But then it produces a glut and the price goes down. ... There’s constant volatility.”
In early 2018, Agri-Mark, one of the largest dairy co-ops in the Northeast, mailed a suicide prevention pamphlet to its farmers along with their milk checks.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption A flag stands prominently on a farm in southern Wisconsin.
“Farmers as a whole – they’re very independent, pull myself up by the bootstraps, put my head down, work harder and we’ll get through this,” says Rick Hummell, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. “Well, that just hasn’t been working anymore. For four or five years, [they’re] not even earning enough money to pay for the work [they’re] doing. And for a lot of them, their father and their grandfather and their great-grandfather were doing it – it’s multigenerational. They don’t want to be the one who lost the farm. Hence the depression and the suicide we’ve been hearing about.”
The number of dairy farms in New England dropped from 20,000 in 1959 to fewer than 2,000 in 2012. Today Massachusetts has only 117 dairy farms remaining, says Dr. Gardner. Across the U.S., according to the USDA, the number of licensed dairy herds dropped from 70,375 in 2003 to 34,187 in 2019.
But increasingly, there are places farmers can turn for help. Mr. Hummell says that growers experiencing excessive stress are calling the Wisconsin Farm Center, which is part of the state’s agriculture department, in greater numbers. The center offers farmers $100 vouchers to pay for counseling. Last year the state government allocated $100,000 for the center to bolster its wellness programming. Advocates say they are also working on forming a network of therapists who are familiar with farming, often people who are farmers or from farm families themselves.
This summer, the Wisconsin Farm Center launched a new podcast focused on farmer wellness, called “Rural Realities.” It also started a 24/7 farmer counseling help line and paid for radio ads intended to reduce the stigma associated with depression. And it created new ways to train people who work with and around farmers – the service providers, the veterinarians, and so on – to help them recognize individuals at risk of taking their own lives.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption A road sign cautions about tractor traffic in farm-heavy south-central Wisconsin.
The federal government is getting involved, too. In 2018, Congress earmarked $2 million to the USDA’s Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, which funds regional collaborations to help those working in farming. This year, it increased funding to $28.7 million over three years.
In the Northeast, a coalition of agricultural groups, including Farm Aid and the National Young Farmers Coalition, is using that money to build a network of service providers, along with a website that will let farmers easily search for wellness and mental health resources. It will also continue to build out the Farm Aid hotline, which the group started during the farm crisis of the 1980s, amid plummeting commodity and land prices and record farm foreclosures.
Calls to the hotline have increased dramatically over the past two years, says Alicia Harvie, Farm Aid’s advocacy and farmer services director. There was a 109% spike in calls in 2018 compared with the year before; 2019 was about the same. This year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, calls increased again.
“We should be alarmed that the people who grow our food are struggling to feed their families,” Ms. Harvie says. “That says a lot about what we are or are not prioritizing in our economy and our society. ... It’s literally human life that’s becoming at stake with this system.”
This is why John Peck, executive director of the Wisconsin-based organization Family Farm Defenders, argues for a different approach to the growing stress he sees among his neighbors. Mental health resources are all well and good. But, he notes, even if you can talk someone off a cliff, “if they’re back looking at the cliff tomorrow, it’s hard to change things.”
The real challenges to farmer wellness, he says, stem from agricultural policies that benefit large farms, opaque pricing systems, and production methods that move control from farmers to agricultural corporations.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Cornhusk angels stand by the Farmer Angel Network booth manned by Brenda Statz (left), whose husband killed himself, and Amanda Coorough at a festival in Witwen, Wisconsin.
Mr. Peck and some others have been pushing for a new system of milk purchasing and pricing, for instance, that would be closer to Canada’s system of supply-side management with quotas. This would allow dairy farmers to have a living wage, he says.
“We have state legislatures that say we need all this money for rural mental health services,” Mr. Peck says. “And farmers are like, ‘It’s the underlying socioeconomic conditions that are causing this.’”
Caitlin Arnold Stephano, the national chapter manager for the National Young Farmers Coalition, an advocacy group, agrees. “The systemic issues are huge,” she says. “Agriculture today in the U.S. is a product of policy change.”
But those issues are complicated and political – and with government programs such as Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance, groups are supposed to work on services only, not policy.
“We’ve always known that stress, emotional health, behavioral health in agriculture are always connected to bigger financial and legal stressors,” says Ms. Harvie, of Farm Aid. “They have to do with farm strategies that are not centered around the well-being and livelihood of people who grow our food.”
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption “I don’t want people to feel like I felt the last day before my suicide attempt," says Jeff Ditzenberger. "We all need to take a step back and remember that everybody is facing a battle, and we just need to be a bit nicer to each other.” Mr. Ditzenberger, here with his dog, Luke, on his farm in Argyle, Wisconsin, is a suicide survivor who started the organization TUGS - Talking, Understanding, Growing, Supporting – to help other farmers.
A message of caring
Jeff Ditzenberger says this is why he always tells his fellow farmers that you can’t control anything but your attitude.
Mr. Ditzenberger farms corn and soybeans an hour outside Madison, and he has sold farm machinery in the region for about 20 years. He was the president of the Green County Farm Bureau for 10 years, and jokes that he and his dog, Luke, also have their own sweet corn business, Luke’s Luscious Corn.
He is one of the area’s more outspoken survivors of a suicide attempt. Nearly 30 years ago, he brought a suicide note to an abandoned house and set it on fire, planning to go with it. Farming, he said, had just become too much, as were the images he clung to as a military veteran.
But something kept him from following through. He was convicted of felony arson, and spent nine months in jail.
He began his organization – Talking, Understanding, Growing, Supporting, or TUGS – in 2013 when he saw how many people in his community were struggling.
“I wanted a chance for people to meet other people that they might relate to,” he says. “You’re sitting there and Joe Smith tells his story and you think, oh my God, that’s what I’ve been through.”
Mr. Ditzenberger’s approach is straightforward. He believes that listening, engaging, and spreading kindness are key to helping alleviate what he agrees is an epidemic in his region. He tries to convince people to stop and notice their neighbors, to ask what’s going on, to really listen.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Cows graze on a farm in Wisconsin framed by russet and golden fields.
He is a proponent of the QPR approach to suicide prevention – an acronym that stands for “question, persuade, and refer.” But really, he wants people to know that he – and others – care. He has brought this message to growing numbers of training sessions and public talks.
“I don’t want people to feel like I felt the last day before my suicide attempt,” he says. “We all need to take a step back and remember that everybody is facing a battle, and we just need to be a bit nicer to each other.”
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This is exactly what Ms. Harms was hoping to do during the Farmer Angel Network’s dairy socials. Yes, the group wants to spread information about crisis hotlines and suicide prevention resources, she says. But as much as that, they wanted to build a sense of community.
“We tried to put a positive spin about bringing farm families together,” she says. “Fellowship in any of these situations is so good. Farmers get together and they start talking and they tell you about the tractor that broke down and the cow that got sick and the hay that got rained on. At the very least, you get talking to the other guys and you think, oh, my life isn’t so bad.”


csmonitor--2020-10-14--How communities can battle isolation – together

Few challenges are as daunting as the problems society tries to ignore .
In this week ’ s cover story , Stephanie Hanes confronts one of America ’ s most protracted problems : suicide .
In recent decades , a surge in awareness has spawned a wave of suicide-prevention efforts since the U.S. Congress first formally recognized the issue as a national problem in 1997 .
Since then , however , the number of deaths has risen .
From 1999 to 2018 , suicide rates in the United States increased 35 % .
Mental health advocates worry that number will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crises continue .
But Stephanie ’ s story , which focuses on the farming community , offers a countertrend , one that might serve as a model for other communities .
In church basements and community centers across America , farmers who have grappled with thoughts of self-harm are finding that by sharing their own struggles , they can help others .
Suicide is often a function of loneliness , if not from physical isolation then from a sense of emotional separation .
The irony is that no one is truly alone in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by suicide , there are countless other stories of survival .
But we live in a society where those stories are often guarded as shameful secrets .
As a result , people who are suffering often feel like no one could possibly understand what they are going through .
The genius of the Farmer Angel Network , profiled in Stephanie ’ s story , is profoundly simple .
Because network participants are all farmers , they are intimately familiar with the pressure of razor-thin profit margins , market fluctuations , and bad weather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ burden of carrying on the legacy of a family farm .
And they know what it ’ s like to feel lost in darkness .
Once stories start flowing , participants say , it becomes easier to feel connected .
The bigger challenge , it turns out , is getting the conversation started in the first place .
Farmers are a particularly stoic group .
But they aren ’ t the only Americans who are reluctant to share their emotional burdens .
In many communities , the persistent stigma around mental health can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But as the farmers in Stephanie ’ s story found , that stigma need not be permanent .
By carving out space for communities to come together to share triumphs and burdens alike , everyone can be part of the solution .
That lesson is particularly relevant today .
As the pandemic stretches on , many have become acutely aware of the bitterness of isolation .
But there ’ s a flip side to that realization – a growing appreciation for just how powerful even fleeting moments of human connection can be .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ soybean farmer near Madison , Wisconsin , tells Stephanie : “ We all need to take a step back and remember that everybody is facing a battle , and we just need to be a bit nicer to each other .
”

Few challenges are as daunting as the problems society tries to ignore.
In this week’s cover story, Stephanie Hanes confronts one of America’s most protracted problems: suicide.
In recent decades, a surge in awareness has spawned a wave of suicide-prevention efforts since the U.S. Congress first formally recognized the issue as a national problem in 1997. Since then, however, the number of deaths has risen. From 1999 to 2018, suicide rates in the United States increased 35%. Mental health advocates worry that number will increase as the current economic and health crises continue.
But Stephanie’s story, which focuses on the farming community, offers a countertrend, one that might serve as a model for other communities. In church basements and community centers across America, farmers who have grappled with thoughts of self-harm are finding that by sharing their own struggles, they can help others.
Suicide is often a function of loneliness, if not from physical isolation then from a sense of emotional separation. The irony is that no one is truly alone in experiencing debilitating despair. For every death by suicide, there are countless other stories of survival. But we live in a society where those stories are often guarded as shameful secrets. As a result, people who are suffering often feel like no one could possibly understand what they are going through.
The genius of the Farmer Angel Network, profiled in Stephanie’s story, is profoundly simple.
Because network participants are all farmers, they are intimately familiar with the pressure of razor-thin profit margins, market fluctuations, and bad weather. They know both the pride and burden of carrying on the legacy of a family farm. And they know what it’s like to feel lost in darkness.
Once stories start flowing, participants say, it becomes easier to feel connected. The bigger challenge, it turns out, is getting the conversation started in the first place.
Farmers are a particularly stoic group. But they aren’t the only Americans who are reluctant to share their emotional burdens. In many communities, the persistent stigma around mental health can be a barrier to getting help.
But as the farmers in Stephanie’s story found, that stigma need not be permanent. By carving out space for communities to come together to share triumphs and burdens alike, everyone can be part of the solution.
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That lesson is particularly relevant today. As the pandemic stretches on, many have become acutely aware of the bitterness of isolation. But there’s a flip side to that realization – a growing appreciation for just how powerful even fleeting moments of human connection can be.
As Jeff Ditzenberger, a corn and soybean farmer near Madison, Wisconsin, tells Stephanie: “We all need to take a step back and remember that everybody is facing a battle, and we just need to be a bit nicer to each other.”


csmonitor--2020-10-14--Trump, Biden to deliver separate, simultaneous town halls

NBC News agreed to put President Donald Trump before voters in a town hall event on Thursday after the president submitted to an independent coronavirus test with the results reviewed by Dr. Anthony Fauci .
Democratic opponent Joe Biden is appearing on a similar town hall event on Thursday in Philadelphia , televised by ABC .
The Trump announcement Wednesday sets up dueling town halls on a night the two candidates were originally supposed to meet for their second debate .
The debate between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden was originally scheduled for Thursday in Miami by the nonpartisan Commission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a virtual format last week in light of the president ’ s recent coronavirus diagnosis .
Mr. Trump then said he wouldn ’ t attend a virtual debate – with Mr. Trump in one room and Mr. Biden in another – leading to its cancelation .
NBC said Mr. Trump would be at least 12 feet from moderator Savannah Guthrie and the audience .
Mr. Trump , who tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2 and spent three days at the Walter Reed military hospital , took a coronavirus test Tuesday administered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NBC said .
Both NIH clinical director Dr. Clifford Lane and Dr. Fauci reviewed Mr. Trump ’ s medical records and said they had a high degree of confidence that the president is “ not shedding infectious virus.
” Mr. Trump ’ s ability to reach a national television audience on Thursday was in part dependent on Dr. Fauci , who had expressed anger at the Trump campaign in recent days for using one of his statements in a campaign ad .
Dr. Fauci said a quote used in the campaign ad was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ halls will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern , but Mr. Biden will have the last word .
The ABC event , moderated by George Stephanopoulos , will last 90 minutes with an additional half hour of analysis .
Mr. Trump ’ s town hall on NBC is scheduled for an hour .
In addition to preventing viewers from getting a side-by-side comparison of the two men , the dueling events will likely be seen by far fewer people .
The first debate between the two men last month was watched by an estimated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
An estimated 6.7 million people saw Mr. Biden at an NBC News-sponsored town hall last week .
Like the Trump event on Thursday will be , it was simulcast on MSNBC , CNBC , and streamed online .
Mr. Trump ’ s town hall with Mr. Stephanopoulos on Sept. 15 was seen by 3.8 million people , Nielsen said .
Thursday ’ s Trump town hall on NBC will be held outdoors at the Perez Art Museum in Miami .
Audience members will be socially distanced , required to wear a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before entering the venue , NBC said .
This story was reported by The Associated Press .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .

NBC News agreed to put President Donald Trump before voters in a town hall event on Thursday after the president submitted to an independent coronavirus test with the results reviewed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Democratic opponent Joe Biden is appearing on a similar town hall event on Thursday in Philadelphia, televised by ABC. The Trump announcement Wednesday sets up dueling town halls on a night the two candidates were originally supposed to meet for their second debate.
The debate between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden was originally scheduled for Thursday in Miami by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, and was changed to a virtual format last week in light of the president’s recent coronavirus diagnosis. Mr. Trump then said he wouldn’t attend a virtual debate – with Mr. Trump in one room and Mr. Biden in another – leading to its cancelation.
NBC said Mr. Trump would be at least 12 feet from moderator Savannah Guthrie and the audience.
Mr. Trump, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2 and spent three days at the Walter Reed military hospital, took a coronavirus test Tuesday administered by the National Institutes of Health, NBC said.
Both NIH clinical director Dr. Clifford Lane and Dr. Fauci reviewed Mr. Trump’s medical records and said they had a high degree of confidence that the president is “not shedding infectious virus.”
Mr. Trump’s ability to reach a national television audience on Thursday was in part dependent on Dr. Fauci, who had expressed anger at the Trump campaign in recent days for using one of his statements in a campaign ad. Dr. Fauci said a quote used in the campaign ad was taken out of context.
Both town halls will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern, but Mr. Biden will have the last word. The ABC event, moderated by George Stephanopoulos, will last 90 minutes with an additional half hour of analysis. Mr. Trump’s town hall on NBC is scheduled for an hour.
In addition to preventing viewers from getting a side-by-side comparison of the two men, the dueling events will likely be seen by far fewer people.
The first debate between the two men last month was watched by an estimated 73.1 million people, the Nielsen company said.
An estimated 6.7 million people saw Mr. Biden at an NBC News-sponsored town hall last week. Like the Trump event on Thursday will be, it was simulcast on MSNBC, CNBC, and streamed online.
Mr. Trump’s town hall with Mr. Stephanopoulos on Sept. 15 was seen by 3.8 million people, Nielsen said.
Thursday’s Trump town hall on NBC will be held outdoors at the Perez Art Museum in Miami. Audience members will be socially distanced, required to wear a mask and submit to a temperature check before entering the venue, NBC said.
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This story was reported by The Associated Press.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-10-14--After court fight, 2020 census to end this week

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can end census field operations early , in a blow to efforts to make sure minorities and hard-to-enumerate communities are properly counted in the crucial once-a-decade tally .
The decision was not a total loss for plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the administration ’ s decision to end the count early .
They managed to get nearly two extra weeks of counting people as the case made its way through the courts .
However , the ruling increased the chances of the Trump administration retaining control of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each state gets – and by extension how much voting power each state has .
The Supreme Court ruling came as the nation ’ s largest association of statisticians , and even the U.S. Census Bureau ’ s own census takers and partners , have been raising questions about the quality of the data being gathered – numbers that are used to determine how much federal funding and how many congressional seats are allotted to states .
After the Supreme Court ’ s decision , the Census Bureau said field operations would end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ request by the Trump administration that the Supreme Court suspend a lower court ’ s order extending the 2020 census through the end of October following delays caused by the pandemic .
The Trump administration argued that the head count needed to end immediately to give the bureau time to meet a year-end deadline .
Congress requires the bureau to turn in by Dec. 31 the figures used to decide the states ’ congressional seats – a process known as apportionment .
By sticking to the deadline , the Trump administration would end @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apportionment , no matter who wins next month ’ s presidential election .
In a statement , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Supreme Court ’ s decision “ regrettable and disappointing , ” and said the administration ’ s actions “ threaten to politically and financially exclude many in America ’ s most vulnerable communities from our democracy.
” Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the high court ’ s decision , saying “ respondents will suffer substantial injury if the Bureau is permitted to sacrifice accuracy for expediency.
” The Supreme @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawsuit by a coalition of local governments and civil rights groups , arguing that minorities and others in hard-to-count communities would be missed if the census ended early .
They said the schedule was cut short to accommodate a July order from President Donald Trump that would exclude people in the country illegally from being counted in the numbers used for apportionment .
Opponents of the order said it followed the strategy of the late Republican redistricting guru Thomas Hofeller , who had advocated using voting-age citizens instead of the total population when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that would favor Republicans and non-Hispanic white people .
Last month , U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose , California , sided with the plaintiffs and issued an injunction suspending a Sept. 30 deadline for finishing the 2020 census and a Dec. 31 deadline for submitting the apportionment numbers .
That caused the deadlines to revert back to a previous Census Bureau plan that had field operations ending Oct. 31 and the reporting of apportionment figures at the end of April 2021 .
When the Census Bureau , and the Commerce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , picked an Oct. 5 end date , Judge Koh struck that down , too , accusing officials of “ lurching from one hasty , unexplained plan to the next ... and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census.
” An appellate court panel upheld Judge Koh ’ s order allowing the census to continue through October but struck down the part that suspended the Dec. 31 deadline for turning in apportionment numbers .
The panel of three appellate judges said that just because the year-end deadline is impossible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ court should require the Census Bureau to miss it .
The plaintiffs said the ruling against them was not a total loss , as millions more people were counted during the extra two weeks .
“ Every day has mattered , and the Supreme Court ’ s order staying the preliminary injunction does not erase the tremendous progress that has been made as a result of the district court ’ s rulings , ” said Melissa Sherry , one of the attorneys for the coalition .
Besides deciding how many congressional seats each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how $ 1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed each year .
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said that his city lost $ 200 million in federal funding over the decade following the 2010 census , and he feared it would lose more this time around .
The California city was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit .
With plans for the count hampered by the pandemic , the Census Bureau in April had proposed extending the deadline for finishing the count from the end of July to the end of October @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dec. 31 to next April .
The proposal to extend the apportionment deadline passed the Democratic-controlled House , but the Republican-controlled Senate didn ’ t take up the request .
Then , in late July and early August , bureau officials shortened the count schedule by a month so that it would finish at the end of September .
The Senate Republicans ’ inaction coincided with Mr. Trump ’ s order directing the Census Bureau to have the apportionment count exclude people who are in the country illegally .
The order was later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ district judges in New York , but the Trump administration appealed that case to the Supreme Court .
The Supreme Court decision comes as a report by the the American Statistical Association has found that a shortened schedule , dropped quality control procedures , pending lawsuits , and the outside politicization of some parts of the 2020 census have raised questions about the quality of the nation ’ s head count that need to be answered if the final numbers are going to be trusted .
The Census Bureau says it has counted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some regions of the country such as parts of Mississippi and hurricane-battered Louisiana fall well below that .
As the Census Bureau winds down field operations over the next several days , there will be a push to get communities in those two states counted , said Kristen Clarke , president and executive director of the Lawyers ’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law , one of the litigants in the lawsuit .
“ That said , the Supreme Court ’ s order will result in irreversible damage to the 2020 Census , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was reported by The Associated Press .

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can end census field operations early, in a blow to efforts to make sure minorities and hard-to-enumerate communities are properly counted in the crucial once-a-decade tally.
The decision was not a total loss for plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to end the count early. They managed to get nearly two extra weeks of counting people as the case made its way through the courts.
However, the ruling increased the chances of the Trump administration retaining control of the process that decides how many congressional seats each state gets – and by extension how much voting power each state has.
The Supreme Court ruling came as the nation’s largest association of statisticians, and even the U.S. Census Bureau’s own census takers and partners, have been raising questions about the quality of the data being gathered – numbers that are used to determine how much federal funding and how many congressional seats are allotted to states.
After the Supreme Court’s decision, the Census Bureau said field operations would end on Thursday.
At issue was a request by the Trump administration that the Supreme Court suspend a lower court’s order extending the 2020 census through the end of October following delays caused by the pandemic. The Trump administration argued that the head count needed to end immediately to give the bureau time to meet a year-end deadline. Congress requires the bureau to turn in by Dec. 31 the figures used to decide the states’ congressional seats – a process known as apportionment.
By sticking to the deadline, the Trump administration would end up controlling the numbers used for the apportionment, no matter who wins next month’s presidential election.
In a statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Supreme Court’s decision “regrettable and disappointing,” and said the administration’s actions “threaten to politically and financially exclude many in America’s most vulnerable communities from our democracy.”
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the high court’s decision, saying “respondents will suffer substantial injury if the Bureau is permitted to sacrifice accuracy for expediency.”
The Supreme Court ruling came in response to a lawsuit by a coalition of local governments and civil rights groups, arguing that minorities and others in hard-to-count communities would be missed if the census ended early. They said the schedule was cut short to accommodate a July order from President Donald Trump that would exclude people in the country illegally from being counted in the numbers used for apportionment.
Opponents of the order said it followed the strategy of the late Republican redistricting guru Thomas Hofeller, who had advocated using voting-age citizens instead of the total population when it came to drawing legislative seats since that would favor Republicans and non-Hispanic white people.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, sided with the plaintiffs and issued an injunction suspending a Sept. 30 deadline for finishing the 2020 census and a Dec. 31 deadline for submitting the apportionment numbers. That caused the deadlines to revert back to a previous Census Bureau plan that had field operations ending Oct. 31 and the reporting of apportionment figures at the end of April 2021.
When the Census Bureau, and the Commerce Department, which oversees the statistical agency, picked an Oct. 5 end date, Judge Koh struck that down, too, accusing officials of “lurching from one hasty, unexplained plan to the next ... and undermining the credibility of the Census Bureau and the 2020 Census.”
An appellate court panel upheld Judge Koh’s order allowing the census to continue through October but struck down the part that suspended the Dec. 31 deadline for turning in apportionment numbers. The panel of three appellate judges said that just because the year-end deadline is impossible to meet doesn’t mean the court should require the Census Bureau to miss it.
The plaintiffs said the ruling against them was not a total loss, as millions more people were counted during the extra two weeks.
“Every day has mattered, and the Supreme Court’s order staying the preliminary injunction does not erase the tremendous progress that has been made as a result of the district court’s rulings,” said Melissa Sherry, one of the attorneys for the coalition.
Besides deciding how many congressional seats each state gets, the census helps determine how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed each year.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said that his city lost $200 million in federal funding over the decade following the 2010 census, and he feared it would lose more this time around. The California city was one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“A census count delayed is justice denied,” Mr. Liccardo said.
With plans for the count hampered by the pandemic, the Census Bureau in April had proposed extending the deadline for finishing the count from the end of July to the end of October, and pushing the apportionment deadline from Dec. 31 to next April. The proposal to extend the apportionment deadline passed the Democratic-controlled House, but the Republican-controlled Senate didn’t take up the request. Then, in late July and early August, bureau officials shortened the count schedule by a month so that it would finish at the end of September.
The Senate Republicans’ inaction coincided with Mr. Trump’s order directing the Census Bureau to have the apportionment count exclude people who are in the country illegally. The order was later ruled unlawful by a panel of three district judges in New York, but the Trump administration appealed that case to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court decision comes as a report by the the American Statistical Association has found that a shortened schedule, dropped quality control procedures, pending lawsuits, and the outside politicization of some parts of the 2020 census have raised questions about the quality of the nation’s head count that need to be answered if the final numbers are going to be trusted.
The Census Bureau says it has counted 99.9% of households nationwide, though some regions of the country such as parts of Mississippi and hurricane-battered Louisiana fall well below that.
As the Census Bureau winds down field operations over the next several days, there will be a push to get communities in those two states counted, said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the litigants in the lawsuit.
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empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
“That said, the Supreme Court’s order will result in irreversible damage to the 2020 Census,” Ms. Clarke said.
This story was reported by The Associated Press.