Recommendations for Program Improvement - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 188

cates the definition of labor and adds confusion to the goal of unambiguous surveil-
lance and to the socio-cultural implications associated with minority populations
that face AFF exposures. The definition of migrant and seasonal workers , which has
historically only included crop workers and thereby ignored the serious occupa-
tional hazards faced by livestock and other workers, should be in accordance with
USDA definitions of hired and contract labor and should be clearly differentiated
from self-employed workers and family workers (see Appendix F for methods of
identifying workforce populations).
4.b: The AFF Program should conduct comparative studies across agri-
culture, forestry, and fishing to set priorities better and to respond to dynamic
workforce and workplace conditions. The AFF Program's research, prevention,
and outreach efforts have been specific to settings, with few comparative studies
across the different AFF sectors. It is not clear how priorities are decided on or
determined; the studies had different objectives, used different definitions for es-
sentially similar populations, used various numerators and denominators, and used
non-comparable classification schemes to characterize exposure.
In the last 2 decades, the AFF workforce has changed with the influx of non-
English speaking workers, the aging of the workforce, industrialization of the three
sectors, and diversification of food, fiber, and fuel production. The committee
believes that there is a need for NIOSH to monitor the workforce better to track
changes and determine needs for research, prevention, and outreach.
Conduct Research on Knowledge Diffusion Processes
Recommendation 5: NIOSH should conduct research on the science of
knowledge diffusion to identify effective methods for AFF research-to-
practice programs.
Knowledge diffusion and its impacts on target populations warrant in-depth
research. In the AFF sector, the workforce is inaccessible through standard meth-
ods because of the diversity in the population with respect to culture, geography,
language, and work subculture and because it is dispersed throughout industries
involving farms, boats and ships, and the forest without an easy access point to
provide educational materials or equipment training. To reach those populations,
new methods should be developed to address language and cultural barriers. The
role of cultural context—for example, in child labor policy on farms—needs to be
incorporated into knowledge diffusion programs. That is also relevant for adult
AFF workers. The use of theory-based research in educational programs designed
to increase safety and health behaviors holds promise for improving the effective-
ness and efficiency of knowledge diffusion (Cole, 2002; Morgan et al., 2002).