Due to the stress in farm country caused by the pandemic and several years of low commodity prices, the Minnesota State Agriculture Department is adding another tool to its farm stress hotline. State Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen says they now have available an ag stress text feature.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the suicide rate in rural areas is 45 percent higher than in rural. Petersen says he has witnessed first hand too many cases where producers took their own lives.

He says it’s also positive Congress has moved forward needed rural mental health legislation and gotten past the politics. Petersen says those Northern Plains Legislators do a great job of working together and not letting politics stop needed efforts to help those undergoing depression and stress.

Farmers and Ranchers can now text FARM STRESS TEXT 898211 or can e-mail farmstress@state.mn.us or can phone 833—600—2670.

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