Introduction - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 8

Of all farms in the United States, 61 percent do not participate in any federal
farm program (Hoppe and Banker, 2006) and so have no incentive to respond to
agricultural subsidies, federally subsidized conservation programs, or acreage set-
asides. That occurs because of absentee ownership (for example, over 50 percent
of the land in Iowa); targeting of national agricultural policy, which excludes many
agricultural commodities; and individual owner, operator, or corporate decisions
to remain out of program spheres (Duffy, 2004; Hoppe and Banker, 2006).
Since Congress passed NIOSH's enabling legislation in 1990, the role of farm
management companies, agricultural labor contractors, and other types of non-
owner operation has substantially increased in importance. In part, that has oc-
curred because of shifts in the demographic profile of those who own land and
facilities, technological changes in production practices, capitalization require-
ments, and incentives embedded in federal agricultural policy (Stofferhan, 2006).
The result has been a large change in who is exposed to worksite risk: custom
farmers and other employees who are under contract to agricultural management
companies are typically as important as farm owner-operators in large sections of
the Midwest and Southwest where row crops (corn, potatoes, sorghum, soybeans,
and sugar beets) predominate and the West Coast where vineyards are present
and other specialty crops are grown (CIRS, 2006). The trend could intensify as a
“bioeconomy” based on agricultural biomass emerges in portions of the nation's
cropland, spurring both monocultures of annual and perennial crops and semi-
natural plant communities and the intensive industrialization of cropping activity
(Hunt, 2006; Jordan et al., 2007). Other exposed populations have also increased
in importance, including hired workers, many of whom are immigrants—probably
the majority of employees in the agriculture workforce.
The agriculture workforce is estimated to number about 5,296,000 people, in-
cluding self-employed workers and working youth (see Table 1-1). U.S. agriculture
TABLE 1-1 Size of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing Workforce Populations
Workforce Sector Number of Persons at Risk
Agriculture 3,167,000 a -5,296,000 b
Logging and forestry 88,000 c -202,000 d
Fishing and hunting 55,000 d -160,000 e
TOTAL 3,314,000-5,658,000
a Source: Farm Labor, NASS, USDA, November 2001, p. 13.
b Source: Occupational Injury Survey of Production, Response to Committee Question #4, NIOSH,
February 16, 2007.
c Source: Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008.
d Source: Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007c.
e Source: U.S. Fishing Industry, NIOSH, 2007b.