Casper G. Bendixsen

Sorting Through the Spheres of Influence: Using Modified Pile Sorting to Describe Who Influences Dairy Farmers’ Decision-Making About Safety

ABSTRACT Objectives: The primary goal of this study was to describe the mutually perceived influence of bankers and insurers on their agricultural clients’ decision-making regarding health and safety. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 dairy farmers, 11 agricultural bankers, and 10 agricultural insurers from central Wisconsin. Three of the interview questions involved pile sorting. Pile sorting included 5-point Likert-like scales to help participants sort through 32 index cards. Each card represented an individual or group that was thought to possibly affect farmers’ decision-making, both generally and about health and safety. Results (photographs of piles of cards quantified into spread sheets, fieldnotes, and interview transcripts) were analyzed with SAS and NVivo. Results: All three groups expressed moderate-to-strong positive opinions about involving agricultural bankers (x2(2) = 2.8155, p = 0.2695), although bankers qualitatively expressed apprehension due to regulations on the industry. Insurance agents received more positive support, particularly from bankers but also from dairy farmers themselves, and expressed more confidence in being involved in designing and implementing a farm safety program. Conclusion: Agricultural bankers and insurers can influence individual farmer’s decision-making about health and safety. Both are believed to be good purveyors of safety programs and knowledge, especially when leveraging financial incentives. Insurance agents are thought to be more critical in the design of safety programs. Insurers and bankers being financially tied to safety programs may prove both positive and negative, as farmers may be skeptical about the intention of the incentives, making messaging critical.

When This Breaks Down, It's Black Gold: Race and Gender in Agricultural Health and Safety.

ABSTRACT Farmers are growing older, and fewer new agriculturists are rising to take their place. Concurrently, women and minorities are entering agriculture at an increasing rate. These rates are particularly curious viewed in light of the racialized and gendered nature of agriculture. Slavery and agriculture share strong historical roots, with many male slaves performing agricultural labor. So then, why would African American women choose to engage in agriculture in any form? Participant observation and in-depth interviews with a group of African American women urban farmers in the southeastern United States were asked this question. Interviews with seven such women revealed their perception of self-sustainable small-scale agriculture as a departure from, not return to, slavery. The women drew metaphors between the Earth and femininity, believing their work to be uniquely feminine. Production of food for consumption and trade provides a source for community and healthy food amid urban poverty and the plight of food deserts. These data encourage agricultural health and safety professionals and researchers to tackle the health-promoting nature of such work, with the entrée of anthropology and other social sciences into the field. In many ways, these women portrayed small-scale food cultivation as an important component of, rather than a threat to, health and safety. Indeed, they viewed such labor as wholly health promoting. Their strong social connections provide a potential means for community-led dissemination of any relevant health and safety information.

The Entanglements of Agrarian Ethics With Agrarian Risks and Leveraging Them in Agricultural Health Safety.

ABSTRACT Agriculture is the most dangerous occupation in the United States for both workers and bystanders. Family farms highlight an intersection of domesticity and labor. Agrarian ethics of animal husbandry, land stewardship, and kinship are often conflated and constructed to accommodate unpredictable risks (e.g., weather, financial markets). Here, the right or good agricultural practice is assessed in light of an acute event. Risks of illness and injury are often relegated to the realm of acute unpredictability and accepted as intrinsic to desirable ways of life. The article presents a description of agrarian ethics and risks generated from personal experience and ethnographic inquiries in the Midwest, the Intermountain West, and Texas over the past 10 years. This article assesses health and safety within agrarian ethics. The results and discussion lead us to an important conversation about how we can be more detailed in the use of terms such as “cultural appropriateness.” It also raises the question as to what is really at stake in public health perspectives like those found in the socioecological and extended parallel process models when deployed in agricultural health and safety.

754 Farm mapping to assist, protect, and prepare emergency responders (farm mapper)

Background Farm Mapping to Assist, Protect and Prepare Emergency Responders (Farm MAPPER) is an interactive web-based tool developed by the NFMC that provides emergency responders onsite information about hazards, resources and physical layouts of agricultural operations. Emergency responders generally do not have right of entry to private farms to map them for future emergencies. Farm MAPPER provides a palate of icons representing items important in emergency events such hazards, access points, water sources, etc., even information on special needs farm residents. Methods The system was developed to allow a farmer to drag and drops icons on an overhead farm map using their computer. Through Farm MAPPER this information is accessible to emergency responders in the fire station, in-route by web connected device, or onsite using QR codes located on post box posts. This knowledge assists responders to efficiently and safely respond to on farm emergencies. MAPPER presently displays icons on Bing maps in an overhead bird’s eye view of the farm. Results The team developed and tested the prototype Farm MAPPER application with local farmers and conducted mock response with the Pittsville fire department using the MAPPER on a volunteer farms. Feedback was received from both groups. Farmers found it easy to use and expressed willingness to map their farms for the benefit of the emergency responders who might use the application. Emergency responders who participated in the mock responses found the application helpful in quickly locating the items that they needed to avoid or employ for their safety and response efficiency. They suggested modifications to the application which have since been incorporated. Conclusions The system was developed to handle geographic diversity, and will be available for worldwide adoption. The team is currently seeking collaborative opportunities to further expand the project reach beyond central Wisconsin.

365 Battlefield to farm field: risk perceptions of US military veterans transitioning into agriculture

Background Prompted by wars in the past two decades largely in the Middle East, the United States veteran population in the United States often struggles with unemployment. America is increasingly occupied by the mental health ramifications of deployment. Domestically, the United States grapples with securing a healthy and abundant food source to support a large food insecure population in the midst of decreases in the number of farms and increasing food imports. The veteran-to-farmer (V2F) movement converges within these two concerns to provide jobs and potential therapeutic benefits to veterans through food production. Methods The project combines a grounded theory approach with epidemiology to understand a broad range of implications for the V2F movement. Grounded theory will be utilised to conduct semi-structured interviews and participant-observation to explore veteran’s safety behaviours and construct an understanding of how knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about safety result in health or injury. Veteran’s health and safety outcomes will be measured using existing US Veterans Affairs’ mental and emotional health analysis tools. Results Outputs will include modified quality of life and reintegration assessment instruments specific to V2F. This project will also explore if the unique experiences and training of veterans creates a worldview that puts them at particular risk and so establishes V2Fs as a new vulnerable worker population. Results pending and will be available by September, 2016. Conclusions The study offers a new and emergent means to implementing research into practice by deriving hypotheses from a grounded theory approach and testing them through traditional epidemiological methods. While the V2F movement continues to expand, the unique risks posed to veterans through agriculture should be explored, recognised, and prevented for veterans as an at-risk population.

653 Safety for youth involved in community based agriculture

Background As Community Based Agriculture (CBA) gains popularity in the U.S., more youth are becoming involved. One type of CBA is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). In CSA, farms sell shares of their harvest, which may include customer labour: as part of the share, to reduce the price of the share, or to gain extra product. Another form of CBA is public gardens (e.g., community, urban, school). Adults work with youth to plant, weed and harvest. Often, those working in CBA are not familiar with the tasks, equipment, and hazards. There are no known safety resources for youth involved in CBA, thus adults depend on prevention strategies from various disciplines to address common problems such as bee stings or weather-related hazards. Methods A pilot study was undertaken to assess youth safety in CBA. A survey was sent to a convenience sample of community/school garden organisers to learn more about youth working in gardens, the types of jobs they perform, the types of equipment being used, and the injuries and illnesses that occur. Eighteen completed surveys were returned and analysed, representing a variety of operations. Results Survey results revealed many groups engage youth in CBA, and youth perform a wide variety of tasks. Very few have formal safety programs; all desire more safety information. In response, “Community-Based Agriculture: Safety Guidelines for Youth Working in Gardens” was developed. Content is based on the North American Guidelines for Children’s Agricultural Tasks and Safety Guidelines for Hired Adolescent Farm Workers. Dissemination efforts included press releases, Ag Educator listservs, and social media. Over 1000 booklets have been distributed, and links are on several national websites. Conclusions In the U.S., CBA activities offer an opportunity for safety professionals to engage with community programs and embed effective principles to safeguard youth. This is especially important, given the national push to grow and eat natural foods.

363 Using the socio-ecologic model as a guide for agricultural safety interventions

Background Agriculture is a dangerous industry that allows children in the worksite. Each day about 38 children are seriously injured on farms. The culture of agriculture resists advice from outsiders. Farm operators/parents prefer receiving information from familiar sources, not safety professionals. The Socio-ecologic Model (SEM) demonstrates how spheres of increasing influence have higher degrees of impact on individual behaviour. Methods We modified the SEM to have farm children as the focal point, with adults/parents the first line of protection. Increasing spheres of influence are family and friends, followed by the community, organisations, and businesses. Public policy has the greatest influence but in agriculture rarely applies. Key farm business contacts are property and liability insurance providers. We conducted a study to assess if and how insurers could influence farmers regarding childhood farm safety. Surveys were distributed at a farm risk management training with 96 (55%) insurers responding. Results Agricultural insurers reported 55% currently send general safety information and 38% provide financial support of safety events. Regarding child-specific information, 79% want to increase their focus on children and 63% need guidance for this. Furthermore, 76% believe customers would be pleased if they added a focus on childhood farm safety. Using these results, an illustrated report was sent to 150 agricultural insurance companies. It highlighted safety topics of concern, including ATVs and children operating tractors. Details were offered on insurance providers’ strategies, such as co-branding farm safety posters, updating farm policies on young workers, and website links to and evidence-based programs. Conclusions This new approach may influence farmers to protect children from preventable injuries. The project impact, including numbers and types of actions taken by insurance companies, will be shared at the Safety 2016 World Conference.