New and Emerging Research in Agricultural, Forestry, and Fishing Safety and Health - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 173

processing and packing industries to consumers—are needed to understand the
risks of acute and chronic illnesses and how to prevent, monitor, and control
them.
Industrialization of Agriculture
Several developments are converging in production agriculture that create new
needs for robust programs in surveillance and health effects. For example, dairy and
meat production capacity is increasingly concentrated in confinement operations,
which results in larger aggregates of livestock at single farm sites. The environ-
mental and ecological issues associated with concentrated animal feed operations
have been subject to intense public scrutiny (NRC, 2003), but the health effects
on employees and others associated with these worksites have been less intensively
analyzed. Safety interventions need to also be studied for those working around
large numbers of animals. In addition, large concentrated operations employ large
numbers of workers and necessitate management and oversight functions far in ex-
cess of those of more conventional operations. Workforce issues affecting the injury
and disease experience in such operations deserve attention, and NIOSH has the
experience in other industrial sectors needed to plan and conduct such work. The
committee encourages NIOSH to begin such analyses without delay and recom-
mends that NIOSH provide encouragement and targeted funding for Ag Centers
that may be in the best position to mount such efforts with dispatch.
Medium-Priority Research
Medium-priority issues and research subjects that are potentially critical in
the near future were identified: the development of biofuels and their impact on
workers and the environment, conditions of farm labor housing and its impact on
public health, the rising demand for specialty agriculture, the integration of human
and animal health, and the need to review equipment safety issues.
Biofuels
Biofuels have come to national attention in the last few years as a promising
source of renewable energy. By developing technologies to convert corn, soybeans,
plant residues, and other biomass materials into fuels, chemicals, and power, the
United States could tap into cleaner and cheaper alternatives to petroleum (The
White House, 2006). Biofuels have the potential to transform the energy sector
and with it the industries associated with biofuels. Agriculture and forestry could
face the greatest revolution since their industrialization at the outset of the 20th
century.