I take your point, Karl, that the ag-health connection isn't new, but I do see these recurring ideas as falling along a spiral. That is, we've not come back to the same point so much as we've spiraled upward. The view from here is similar, but we are further along -- at least I trust that we are.

Great point, MA! Good idea the spiral! Not in the same place, but with progress we cycle. Thanks for that positive note, :).
- K

[Note: Karl's response was originally posted as a comment to the following post on "Ag at the Polling Place." I've moved it here to continue the thread to which he is responding. -- Mary Ann]

The gateway provides a central starting point for anyone interested in exploring the ag-public health connection. Keep up the awesome work, dude.

I would like to encourage young farmers to consider diversifying their operations by adding a hydroponic green house. Growing food locally is a massive trend in the food production industry and it is being supported by corporate power houses like Walmart and many other grocery chains. Hydroponic growing uses 1/10 the amount of water and 1/10 the amount of land required to produce traditional field row crops. You can produce a crop all year long and smooth out some of the volatility that you are exposed to in other markets. I am not suggesting you change your whole operation, just trim off an acre.

Alex Tiller
http://blog.alextiller.com

Hey, thanks, RIC. Sorry I missed it, but I'm glad you chimed in. Looks like a great page you've got there.

Mary Ann - I checked the BLS reference, but could not find the fatality rate per 100,000 workers for firefighters. In the BLS reference I did find the number of firefighter fatalities but not the fatality rate. The chart in the BLS reference that has the farming fatality rates does not include firefighter fatality rate. So, I do not see the basis for the comaprison betwen firefighters and farmers.

Tom,

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are 283,630 fire fighters in the United States.

The Bureau also indicates, as you saw, that fire fighter fatalities rose to 42 in 2006.

Given those figures, I calculated the fatality rate for fire fighters to be 14.8. (Divide 42 by 283,630; multiply the result by 100,000 to get the rate per 100,000.) That number falls well below the figures provided for farmers and other agricultural workers (37.1 and 21.7, respectively).

Of course, like all statistics, there are many ways to look at things, and even the original counting or methodology might be different. Here are two examples related to fire fighter fatalities:

In stark contrast to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Fire Protection Association offers a much higher figure for on-duty fire fighter deaths in 2006 -- 89, more than double the 42 from the BLS. But then the NFPA also estimates many more fire fighters in the field: 1,136,650 total (313,300 career fire fighters; 823,350 volunteer fire fighters). [Note: Different years covered in those two reports, but for the sake of this discussion, close enough.]

With numbers that far apart, it's obvious the two organizations are counting fire fighters and fatalities very differently.

Another researcher (and former fire fighter) looked at fatality rates based on actual time "at risk," rather than just on the job. His results showed a much higher risk factor for fire fighters because he used a different process for normalizing the numbers.

Which is correct? I'm not qualified to say. That's why I left things in the number-crunching hands of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wow. 600 people a year is an astronomical number. I knew farming was dangerous, but that really gave me some perspective. Thanks for the safety tip links.

Alex Tiller
http://blog.alextiller.com