America is losing its farmers to bankruptcy and suicide

While suburban consultants call in sick with mild lower-back aches from ergonomic office chairs, Iowa corn growers lose arms to steel PTO shafts on 200-horsepower tractors.

Agricultural labor is unforgiving. In fact, farming is more dangerous than working as a police officer or firefighter, with 23 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers.

I am the son of a farmer. I know firsthand what backbreaking labor actually costs and how brutally the modern system devalues it.

Bitter harvest

Heavy steel farm implements chop, grind, and crush human tissue without delay. Spinning driveshafts running at 1,000 revolutions per minute yank loose shirttails into gearboxes within milliseconds. Grain bin entrapments swallow dozens of operators every harvest season, suffocating men under 50,000 pounds of shelled corn in 20 seconds flat.

Even so, today some