Restructuring, Environmentalism and the Problem of Farm Safety

This article examines the health and safety perceptions and practices of conventional, no till and organic grain farmers in Ontario Canada. Based on 12 intensive case studies, the analysis examines whether different restructuring and environmental orientations are related to different approaches to occupational health and safety. The analysis suggests that although there is a substantial level of awareness and knowledge of health and safety hazards among all the farmers, significant differences in practices are linked in complex and somewhat unexpected ways to the production and environmental approaches of the farmers. In particular, while economic constraints and rationales provide an overriding basis for risk-taking across all the farmers, the level and form that this takes is shaped by farmer orientations to farm management and the environment. The article also links both the common patterns and variations in farmer practices to corporate and government discourses on the prevention of environmental and occupational injuries, suggesting that mixed messages undermine any effort to intensify farmer commitment to safety.