safety in agriculture

Safety Hazards for California Agriculture Workers

Agriculture and its related industries provide employment for 11% of the entire US population. Direct, on-farm employment accounts for 2.6 million of these positions, or 1.3% of total employment in the US. And yet, farming has been said to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s twice as fatal as law enforcement, five times more deadly than firefighting, and 73 times more hazardous than an investment banking career on Wall Street. For people who work on farms, injuries and deaths are disturbingly common events that affect everyone. 22 out of every 100,000 farmers die on the job each year, with an additional estimated 58,000 injuries that occur.