The plight of the American farmer
In 2013, a team of scientists from the US, UK, and Canada published a report titled, "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function." Their study followed several hundred farmers from India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. In this region, farmers generally receive the entirety of their income following the annual harvest in September. The researchers gave each of the farmers an IQ test both before the harvest, when they had expended most if not all of their revenue from the previous year, and after the harvest when their resources were renewed. The results were extraordinary, revealing that the farmer’s IQ scores were significantly lower (in some cases by as many as 20 points) when they had little or no money as compared to when they received their income for the year. Even more alarming, however, were reports from 2017 that sugar cane farmers in southern India were committing suicide at an alarming rate. In the state of Karnataka for example, approximately 1,000 farmers tak...