The two largest U.S. farm groups, with millions of members, have launched the “Farm Town Strong” campaign to raise awareness of opioid abuse and how to get treatment. The initiative follows a poll by the groups, the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union, that found that 74 percent of farmers and farmworkers say a family member or friend has been affected by abuse of painkilling narcotics.
“Farm country has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic — even harder than rural America as a whole, or big cities,” said Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall. NFU president Roger Johnson said treatment is harder to get in rural areas and that the stigma of addiction discourages action. “Through the Farm Town Strong campaign, we’re tackling this crisis head-on by encouraging more dialogue, more information sharing, and more farmer-to-farmer engagement.”
The two groups said they would hold public events and launch a social media campaign, #FarmTownStrong, to highlight the crisis and share resources. Duvall and Johnson are to discuss the opioid crisis on Monday at the AFBF convention in Nashville, Tenn.
The website for the “Farm Town Strong” campaign is available here.