health consequences of industrialized agriculture for farmers in the United States, The

Human Organization, Fall 1998 by Thu, Kendall M

This article provides an overview of the inordinately high rates of health and injury problems among farmers, farm workers, and their families in the U.S. It offers a critical review of farmer health and safety research and intervention efforts which primarily focus on engineering and education. An understanding of farmer health problems rooted in social and economic conditions of industrialized agriculture is offered based on data from a series of group interviews with farmers in Iowa and Nebraska, recent survey data, and relevant social science research.

Key words: farming, industrialization, health; United States, Iowa, Nebraska

Agriculture in the United States has been hailed as a model of productivity and efficiency in the post World War II era. Industrialized agriculture is characterized by the replacement of human labor with capital intensive tools and inputs heavily dependent on fossil fuels, the consolidation of farm land, and increasingly centralized control over the distribution of food resources (Thu and Durrenberger 1998). It has resulted in the greatest concentration of agricultural land, the fewest number of farms, and the smallest proportion of the total population (2%) involved in farming in U.S. history. There are 1.9 million farms in the U.S. - the fewest since the Civil War - with 50% of all U.S. agricultural land being owned by 4% of the owners (USDA Economic Resarch Service 1992). Anthropologists have been notably involved in describing the implications of industrial agricultural conditions for the adaptive strategies of farmers (Barlett 1989; Bennett 1982; Chibnik 1987; Gladwin 1980). However, with few exceptions (Arcury 1997; Elkind 1991; Geller, Ludtke, and Stratton 1990), the health consequences of the social and economic conditions associated with industrialized agriculture have not gained much attention among anthropologists or other social scientists.

Many of the health consequences of industrial agriculture are associated with what farmers view as stress. However, stress is not so much a psychological phenomenon peculiar to an individual, as it is a set of conditions repeatedly described by farmers as a problem that reflects and embodies a broader pattern of external political, economic, and social conditions inherent to an industrialized form of agriculture. Most farmers don't say, "I'm suffering from industrial agriculture;" they say "I'm confronting stress." Because of the inattention to these external conditions, there has been an incomplete understanding among health and agricultural science professionals concerning the role of social and economic factors in contributing to the alarming rates of illness, injuries, and fatalities among farmers, farm workers, and their families in the U.S. The Farmer Health Crisis

Industrialized agriculture has resulted in a public health crisis for farmers, farm workers, and their families. The National Safety Council's (NSC) annual survey of occupations reveals that for the past 20 years agriculture has been second only to mining in the annual number of work-related fatalities. In 1996, there was an average of 24 fatalities per 100,000 agricultural workers compared to the average of 4 fatalities per 100,000 workers for all U.S. industries combined (NSC 1996). Equally disturbing is the unabated occurrence of disabling injuries among U.S. agricultural workers. Ten percent of agricultural workers experience a disabling injury each year. Nearly half of all survivors of farm trauma are permanently impaired, incurring enormous hospital and rehabilitation costs rarely covered by worker's compensation. Over 44% of U.S. farm worker households have at least one disabled member (AARP 1987). In crude economic terms, the cost of disabling and fatal injuries in U.S. agriculture exceeded 4.5 billion dollars for 1995 alone (NSC 1996).

Not counted in these statistics are farm children under age 19 who suffer 8 fatalities and 1,717 injuries per 100,000 persons (Rivara 1996). Nor do these figures include the wide range of agriculturally-related illnesses and diseases. National Safety Council data indicate that among all occupational sectors, agricultural workers suffer the second highest rate of workrelated illness (NSC 1996). These include respiratory and zoonotic diseases (animal transmitted), increased risk for certain cancers, hearing deficits, musculoskeletal problems, and numerous skin conditions.

Respiratory diseases are among the most pervasive agricultural health problems. Exposures to irritant and toxic gases and dusts on the farm result in an array of conditions, including chronic bronchitis, occupational asthma, organic dust toxic syndrome, farmer's lung, and silo filler's disease. Data from one study indicate farmers are disabled by lung disease more often than any other occupational group (Mutel and Donham 1983). Nearly 30% of U.S. swine producers experience one or more chronic respiratory problems such as chronic bronchitis, occupational asthma, and organic dust toxic syndrome (Thorne et al. 1996). Organic dust is the major respiratory exposure for agricultural production workers. While respiratory problems are most notable in countries with industrialized agriculture, the increasing export of confined livestock production technologies to developing areas such as Southeast Asia and Central America poses clear risks for workers there (Thu, Zwerling, and Donham 1998).