This is where the Internet would be somewhat helpful. Is there a popular online community for farmers? I feel like that would be something I would have stumbled across by now. I understand that loneliness is caused by lack of physical human interaction, but I guess occasional interaction with humans through the Internet would be somewhat beneficial.
Obviously Short's suicide was the result of more than one reason, and as the final paragraphs indicate it would be difficult to pin-point the problem solely as loneliness. I feel that the focus of this article is a call for more comprehensive counselling and medical care. That would be more than social interaction; it'd be social interaction with a trained individual within an apposite environment. I am aware that Intel started a scheme in 2006 to provide Indian farmers in rural areas with "community PCs" and that developments were being made as lately as 2011 with the "Classmate PC". While this was aimed at supporting farmers in their agricultural endeavours (for example checking the weather or researching things), I have no doubt that it would allow rural Indians to connect with the rest of the world. Would something like this be feasible in the USA?