EVERSON, Wash. — As milk prices fall, worries about dairy farmer suicides are on the rise.
Gerald Baron of the local advocacy group Save Family Farming says break-even for milk is around $15 per hundred-weight, but prices are nowhere near that, and farmers are not only losing money, but face losing everything.
“There’s a tremendous family history and a legacy that’s been passed on from generation to generation, so farmers are not just losing economically when they [close],” he said. “A lot of times they’re older, they might be in their fifties or sixties and they’re [wondering] what do they do with their life.”
NPR reports the Massachusetts-based dairy co-op “AgriMark” sends out local flyers promoting suicide prevention resources after losing three member farmers to suicide in the past three years.
Locally, Baron says in addition to dairy farmer suicides elsewhere in our state, at least one serious illness can likely be attributed to stress among dairy farmers in Whatcom County.
“When you operate on a negative basis for awhile, you can only do that for so long…..you certainly can’t go on forever,” he says.
Daily Dairy Report shows milk prices hovering about 20% below break even for many farmers.