8 Established 1961 International Monday, June 11, 2018 US farm belt trying to head off another surge in suicides Farm industry officials bolstering outreach, counseling programs

NEW YORK: Responding to signs of rising despair in Crisis rural America over a farming downturn exacerbated “Farmers and ranchers already have the highest sui- by the current trade war fears, agricultural leaders are cide rates of any occupation,” said Matt Perdue, of the mobilizing to try to prevent another suicide crisis. Two National Farmers Union. Those who work in rural areas high profile deaths in the past week, of celebrity chef point to myriad factors, including commodity price Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade, volatility, more extreme weather and worsening isolation have shined a spotlight on the issue of depression and as more young people leave for the cities. And making suicide in the , where the latest data matters worse, “About 60 percent of rural residents live show rates are rising, especially in rural states. in areas that suffer from a mental health professional Farm industry officials are bolstering outreach and shortage,” Perdue said. counseling programs throughout the American farm The CDC study also pointed to research that suggests belt and calling for more action from Washington. chronic exposure to pesticides “might affect the neuro- “Things are tough in the countryside,” said John logic system and contribute to depressive symptoms.” Sorbello, a vegetable and nursery farmer in upstate Financial stress is one factor that can lead to suicide and New York and a director of the state’s farm bureau, farm incomes have fallen around 50 percent since 2013 an affiliate of the nation’s biggest farm group. Dairy and revenues are expected in 2018 to come in at the farmers are facing especially lowest level since 2006. The tough times, he said. National Farmers Union, at the “There’s nothing to do over urging of members who see the pricing of milk, they are growing numbers of growers worried about NAFTA, Suicide rate fearful of losing the family about the surplus in dairy rose nearly farm, urged the US products all over the world,” Department of Agriculture to Sorbello said. “It seems you 30% between “proactively address the farm have no control over it and 1999 and 2016 suicide crisis.” it’s stressful.” Lawmakers voted in 2008 Earlier this year, one of to bolster mental health serv- the large dairy cooperatives ices in agricultural communi- took the drastic step of ties as part of an omnibus NEW YORK: A man looks at notes and photographs left in memory of Anthony Bourdain at the closed loca- including suicide prevention information with the farm bill, but no funds have been allocated to the tion of Brasserie Les Halles, where Bourdain used to work as the executive chef, on June 8, 2018. —AFP monthly check. “Some people thought it was too effort. There is a chance Congress could provide sup- extreme,” Sorbello said. “But it got everybody’s atten- port in a bill now being considered, but “it’s too early one farm family consultant to each case, as we have the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and a psy- tion.” The outreach push comes amid a big surge in to make a prediction one way or the other,” Perdue found that even if the case presents itself as purely a chologist by training, will meet or phone any farmer suicides throughout the United States. The suicide said. The troubles facing farmers extend well beyond financial matter, there are almost always underlying under duress at no charge. “This is important because rate rose nearly 30 percent between 1999 and 2016 - the United States. France in early 2018 boosted its personal or communication issues that need attention,” when you are in a medical environment, for the insur- and in many states by more than that - according to a funding for anti-suicide programs following a rise in said Hal McCabe, outreach director at NY FarmNet. ance, you have to get people to come in,” Matthews report this week from the US Centers for Disease the number of calls for help. And India has also suf- Hearing of rising concern in rural communities, the said. But helping farmers is more complex than most Control and Prevention. fered a wave of farm suicides after many in the sector group has conducted suicide prevention workshops people realize, he said. “One of the biggest problems is The report did not break out individual industries, became mired in debt. aimed mainly at agricultural services workers, such as that non-farmers don’t understand farmers, and they but 2016 CDC data showed US farmers have five bankers, suppliers or farm maintenance staff. “While we think they do,” Matthews said. “Farming is not an occu- times the rate of suicide as the broader population. ‘Not an occupation’ cannot speak to suicides, as that data is very hard to pation, it’s a way of life. You don’t go to your job to The US farm belt also has bad memories of the 1980s NY FarmNet at Cornell University, which was found- ever come by, the types of calls we are getting are far farm, it’s part of who you are,” he added. “Telling them when a bruising industry downturn saw an explosion ed in 1986 amid a rash of suicides, provides free aide to more dire than in the past five-10 years,” McCabe said. to sell their lands to pay off their debts is like telling of agricultural workers taking their own lives. farmers in need. “We send one financial consultant and Ted Matthews, director of mental health outreach for them to cut one arm.” —AFP

Moscow to be brought back into the fold, four Conte, Italy’s years after it was expelled for annexing . But Italy’s left-wing Repubblica newspaper pointed out how Conte watched the evening’s novice PM, entertainment sat alongside Trump, who might Brexit donor held otherwise have found himself isolated in completes G7 Canada. And the Italian also received an early undisclosed meetings invite to the White House although a date has yet been set. “Just met the new Prime Minister baptism of fire of Italy, @GiuseppeConteIT, a really great guy. with Russian envoy He will be honored in Washington, at the LA MALBAIE, Canada: A month ago, he was a @WhiteHouse, shortly,” Trump said on Twitter LONDON: A major Brexit campaign donor held little-known law professor. On Saturday, after flying out of Canada. “He will do a great two previously undisclosed meetings with the Giuseppe Conte was heading home to Italy as a job - the people of Italy got it right!” Russian ambassador before and after the 2016 fully-fledged member of the most exclusive club referendum and was offered a deal on six gold of world leaders. And he may just have found a Taking on Brussels mines in , The Sunday Times reported. new ally in Donald Trump. After the political That Conte should find common ground with Arron Banks, the outspoken founder of the novice took over as premier on June 1, commen- Trump should be no great surprise given that Leave.eu campaign, was introduced to London tators were swift to question his ability to stand they both owe their rise in large part to a back- envoy Alexander Yakovenko by Alexander Udod, shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Trump and lash against globalization and the political a “suspected Russian intelligence officer”, the Germany’s Angela Merkel at this weekend’s G7 establishment. But if Trump is the unabashed report said. summit in Canada. one-man leader of a movement, the mild-man- Banks has also reportedly admitted that he While Europe’s leaders have often allowed nered Conte has been portrayed as the puppet handed over phone numbers for members of Germany and France to coordinate a common of Italy’s far-right League party and the anti- LA MALBAIE, CANADA: Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (left) shakes hands with US President Donald Trump on the first day of the G7 Summit on 8 June, 2018. —AFP Donald Trump’s transition team to Russian offi- stance at international gatherings, Conte raised establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). cials, after meeting with the US president-elect in eyebrows at the start of the summit by siding Trump has railed against the “swamp” estab- November 2016 in New York. Asked about the with Trump on the issue of Russia’s readmission lishment in Washington, and Conte made it clear asylum to register in the first EU state they enter. had expressed “Italy’s total dissatisfaction with report at the G7 summit in Canada on Saturday, to their club. Conte turned to Trump’s favorite on his international debut that he was willing to take on powerbrokers from Brussels. After talks Italy has long argued that the rules as they the proposals” that are currently on the table in Prime Minister Theresa May said: “I am sure that medium Twitter to make his point, in a sign that he is another world leader willing to use social with Commission supremo stand are unfair given so many migrants trying his meeting with Juncker and Tusk. “Italy has if there are any allegations that need investigation Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council to seek asylum from across the Mediterranean been left on his own on this issue but we must the proper authorities will do that.” media to bypass journalists. He later appeared to fall into line with president Donald Tusk, Conte told reporters he land in boats on its southern coast. The topic is have reforms and we want to see some more Senior cabinet minister David Lidington told the Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron had insisted on an overhaul to the so-called expected to feature at an EU summit in Brussels solidarity within Europe,” he told Italian BBC yesterday that the allegations were “serious” by agreeing it was in fact still too early for Dublin Regulations which require people seeking at the end of the month, but Conte said that he reporters. —AFP and should be looked into by the authorities. The paper said the revelations raised “explosive ques- tions about attempts by Russia to influence the Poroshenko initiated the discussion. referendum result” but Banks dismissed them as Putin says ‘premature’ Fears have grown in recent weeks that Sentsov, a 41- part of a “witch-hunt” against Brexit and Trump. year-old Ukrainian director and author who is serving a 20- year prison sentence on terrorism charges in Russia, could ‘Family trip’ to to divulge detail of die behind bars. He went on hunger strike on May 14 to Banks, an insurance industry millionaire, has demand Russia release dozens of Ukrainian political prison- previously said he had “a six-hour boozy lunch” ers, timing his protest to coincide with the month-long foot- with Yakovenko at the Russian embassy on Nov 6, prisoner swap ball extravaganza that begins on Thursday. The father of two 2015. Citing email correspondence, the Sunday MOSCOW: Russian President said yester- said he was ready to die in prison, drawing comparisons Times said that meeting was set up by Udod and day it was too early to discuss in detail a possible prisoner with Soviet-era dissident , who starved that he was one of 23 suspected Russian spies exchange with Ukraine, amid hopes for the release of film himself to death in prison in 1986 after he demanded expelled by Britain following the poisoning of for- director Oleg Sentsov and others during the World Cup. Moscow release prisoners of conscience. mer double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter But the Kremlin leader indicated that backdoor negotia- Yulia in March. The paper quoted Andy Wigmore, tions were apparently underway, raising hopes for the ‘I will not back down’ a close associate of Banks who was present at the release of dozens of prisoners including Sentsov, who is on Sentsov, who has agreed to be administered a glucose meeting, as saying that they did not offer “any a high-profile hunger strike at a high-security prison in drip, has already lost eight kilos and doctors have threat- Oleg Sentsov information to (the ambassador) or any Russian Russia’s far north. ened to soon begin force-feeding him, his lawyer Dmitry any details of our campaign”. “It’s so far premature to say how this issue will be Dinze has told AFP. In letter to rights activists released on Saturday, Sentsov said he felt “normal” and that he had The report said Banks and Wigmore met with solved,” Putin told reporters at a summit in the Chinese city Friday that Kiev and Moscow were in the process of agree- recently been transferred to the prison infirmary and given a Yakovenko again for a cup of tea on November 17 of Qingdao, adding he would not want to comment for now ing lists of prisoners and other details. She would inform “so as not to violate anything here and not to disrupt any- separate room. “So now I am a sick prisoner and not just a Poroshenko of the date she would travel to Russia to visit at a meeting that also included mining magnate prisoner. :)) “, he wrote in the letter, a copy of which was Siman Povarenkin to discuss a deal involving six thing.” Putin and Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko dis- Ukrainians on Monday, her office said. Moscow’s ombuds- cussed a possible exchange of prisoners in a rare phone call published by Ukrainian TV channel Hromadske. “Everyone man Tatyana Moskalkova told Russian media for her part gold mines in Russia. Banks, who is married to a understands that I will not back down.” Russian woman, then visited Russia in February Saturday and agreed that officials from the two countries that she would visit Ukraine no earlier than Wednesday, a Ukraine’s rights ombudsman Lyudmyla Denysova said on day before the World Cup begins in Russia.—AFP 2016 at the height of the EU referendum cam- would visit their prisoners “in the near future”. Putin said paign for what he said was “a family trip” that involved no meetings with Russian officials. The paper said the Brexit campaigners subse- of the world’s poorest countries after vowing to improve the term in office, but see them “multiplied at high speed” to quently invited Yakovenko and Udod to a drinks Liberia leader looks daily life of a population desperate for electricity, running meet the expectations of young people who massively party in London’s Notting Hill hosted by Banks, water and other basics. The former soccer star succeeded backed him at the polls. and the Russian ambassador was also asked to Africa’s first elected woman head of state, Ellen Johnson Youth account for some 60 percent of Liberia’s popula- attend their results party in Westminster. Banks abroad for help Sirleaf, who restored stability after brutal civil wars but failed tion of 4.7 million. “Most of them are not yet trained to the and Wigmore were invited back to meet to raise living standards. level where we can find them jobs. Jobs are also not adequate Yakovenko after they, and Brexit firebrand Nigel tackling poverty “It is time now to consolidate the peace and to develop to give to them,” Interior Minister Varney Sirleaf said at the Farage, met with Trump in Nov 2016 shortly after the country to be economically independent and prosper,” seminar. Weah himself seems clearly aware of the burden of his election. “The ambassador was obviously keen MONROVIA: After stoking expectations among Liberia’s Liezelle Kumalo, a researcher at the South African think- expectation. He sought to set an example at the start of his to know how our meeting (with Trump) went,” voters for rolling back poverty, President George Weah is tank the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), told a seminar mandate by cutting his own salary by 25 percent. Then he Wigmore said. —AFP facing the twin pressures of time and money to carry out his in Monrovia in May. “This is a huge challenge.” She sug- ordered a 20-percent cut in the price of rice, which is a sta- promises. On January 22, Weah became president of the one gested Weah should not only keep the gains of Sirleaf’s ple food in Liberia but entirely imported. —AFP