The health and well-being of the nation’s agricultural sector is critically important to America’s prosperity, said U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who last week called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support the mental health of farmers and ranchers.
“I write to urge you to help address the enormous mental health challenges faced by farmers and ranchers across the country, which have no doubt been exacerbated by the severe drought sweeping my state and elsewhere,” the congressman wrote in a Sept. 9 letter sent to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Rep. Emmer requested information from Vilsack regarding specific resources offered by the USDA to farmers impacted by the drought, including a regional report detailing the results of the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network — which Rep. Emmer successfully helped reauthorize in the 2018 Farm Bill — and information about the current funding USDA has dispensed for the network and how much funding remains.
“When we reauthorized the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, we ensured that farm families and rural Americans would have better access to mental health resources,” wrote Rep. Emmer. “However, the work doesn’t end there, and our farmers have experienced increased stress due to supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19, which was made impossible to recover from due to the drought that followed.”
According to Rep. Emmer, more than four million Minnesotans live and work in areas currently experiencing severe drought, which he said has had “devastating impacts” on the agriculture industry.
“I am hopeful that the Biden administration has deployed all the resources Congress has allocated to assist our farmers through this difficult time,” he wrote.