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3. 2013 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Using Social Marketing and Education Programs to Minimize Legal and Human Risks to Agricultural Producers Including New and Beginning Farmers.

Aaron Yoder, Julie Sorenson, and Dennis J. Murphy

Summary

Agricultural producers are 800% more likely to die on the job than the average worker, and their leading cause of their death is the tractor rollover. Also, the fact that 7 out of 10 families have to sell their farm within one year of a fatal tractor rollover is alarming. Since 2006, the Northeast Center for Agricultural and Occupational Health has been working on changing this through rollover protective structure (ROPS) retrofit programs throughout the Northeastern United States. These programs combine research, outreach and financial incentives through Social Marketing techniques to motivate agricultural producers to upgrade older tractors by installing ROPS, which include rollbars and seatbelts. Since ROPS are 99% effective at preventing fatalities from tractor rollovers, the program is essentially eliminating the risk of accidental tractor overturn deaths from the retrofitted tractors. Based on the initial success in New York, the program has been expanded to serve producers in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin. Nearly 1300 tractors have been retrofitted to date, and this in turn protects all the farms and operators that use those tractors. Other agricultural safety and health educational programs and resources developed at Penn State through various sources and their impact on producers, including new and beginning farmers will also be discussed.

Details

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