Rural Coalition

on behalf of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research, March 27, 2007
(PDF 560KB)

Policy Center

Farmworker - Farmer Partnerships to Reduce Risk and Increasing Health and Safety in the Agricultural Workplace

With an emphasis on partnership, the Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural and a number of partner groups have just completed the Reducing Risk Exposure and Increasing Health and Safety Through Farmworker-Farmer Partnerships and Training Project. Supported by the USDA Risk Management Agency, the diverse partners, including producers, farmworkers, a risk management firm, an insurance company, an actuarial firm and others, have shared the results of their unique work on partnership development, and the development and revision of two risk management tools, the first to meet labor requirements and reduce health and safety risk to farmers and farmworkers, and the second a risk management tool to meet labor needs of small farmers and increase job security for farmworkers. Templates of the tools are available here.

Why the Project is Important: Many producers of specialty crops and small farmers producing fresh products struggle to meet labor requirements and reduce risks of inadequate labor supply at critical production times. These producers are also affected by the high costs of workers compensation insurance, and the lack of liability and revenue protection insurance. The agricultural workplace has among the highest accident and injury rates in the nation with devastating impact on farmers and farmworkers, and their families. The partners in this project, funded by the USDA Risk Management Agency, hypothesize that there is a mutual benefit in developing a wider array of risk management tools that could reduce risk exposure, increase health and safety and meet related to farm labor supply.

Risk Management Tool Training Goals: Our goal is to assist agricultural enterprises to create a culture of safety in the workplace with proactive involvement of management and workers.

For more information contact Lorette Picciano (lpicciano@ruralco.org).

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