Agricultural Safety

The Unique Character of Production Agriculture
Related to Workplace Safety

Each year, "agriculture" competes with mining and construction as the occupation with the most accident-caused fatalities per 100,000 workers, and the occupation with the highest disabling injury frequency rate. There is no question that agriculture is one of the most hazardous occupations in the nation.

The agricultural or agri-industry workplace is unique among workplaces in America. Several factors combine to compound the effect of agricultural hazards. "Agriculture" is distinguished from "general industry" in many apparent respects. Unlike general industry, whose structure has allowed the reduction of worker injury rates over the past few decades through easy access to technical and managerial resources and the exercise of management control over a relatively large, concentrated group of workers at one location, each farm, ranch, or agri-business is relatively small and geographically separated from one another, where workers often work alone or in small groups frequently isolated from supervision.

It should also be noted that general industry usually employs safety experts or assigns a full- or half-time coordinating responsibility to a supervisor, whereas farm or agri-business managers must each attempt to set up their own safety programs without the training and established safety resources available to most industrial companies.

Agriculture also has a unique work force. Although many large farms and agri-businesses do exist, agriculture is still largely a family or small business operation. On farms and ranches, a significant portion of the full- and part-time labor force is supplied by the farm family itself, including farm wives, children, and the elderly. In no other workplace do wives, children, and the elderly get involved in the operation of complex mechanical equipment associated with such severe injury potential as in agricultural operations. Further, the hired work force on farm and in agri-industry is often migratory, unskilled, and has a relatively low level of formal education. Frequently, this labor force speaks Spanish (or another non-English language) and reads neither English nor Spanish. Compared to general industry, this labor force is relatively inexperienced and untrained in the recognition and control of hazards.

Agriculture is also unique in terms of the physical characteristics of its "plant and equipment." A foundry in Georgia looks and operates the same as a foundry in California. A tire plant in Michigan looks and operates the same as a tire plant in Texas. However, each and every farm or ranch has special hazards related to topography and ground cover, including such things as hills, gullies, brush, trees, ponds, ditches, streams, holes and mounds created overnight by rain and fire ants, nearby roads and highways, and numerous other landscape features. Further, each agri-business typically has a large variety of equipment of various ages, obtained from a variety of manufacturers, often used only seasonally, that must be continually repaired as well as mixed and matched over time to accomplish purposeful work.

Industrial workers, compared to agricultural workers, must become familiar with relatively few pieces of machinery and the skills to use them. No occupation has a higher exposure to the variety of hazardous machinery and moving parts than does the typical agricultural worker.

Those who manage the agricultural workplace, build agricultural facilities, manufacture agricultural machinery, or provide agricultural services, must recognize and understand the special character of agricultural and rural life which accents the importance of agricultural safety-related issues. The unique character of agriculture dictates a special effort by those who build agricultural facilities, manufacture agricultural equipment, or provide agricultural services, to provide agricultural managers and workers with a workplace free of recognized hazards likely to cause serious injury.