The New Year is a time for new beginnings, when we resolve to do better, try harder and make more of a difference in the lives of people around us. It’s a chance to renew the commitments we’ve made to help our neighbors and make our communities stronger.

This resolve is what led the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and National Farmers Union (NFU) to team up to increase awareness of a heartbreaking crisis in our nation’s rural communities — opioid abuse. According to a new survey we jointly commissioned with the firm Morning Consult, nearly half of rural Americans say they’ve been affected by opioid abuse, and 74 percent of farmers and farm workers echo that sentiment. Too many of us have seen people we know struggle with addiction personally or with the pain of addiction in their families.

Our nation is facing an opioid epidemic. Rural Americans cannot ignore this crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. While we may want to think drug addiction is a big city problem, this crisis is...