Farm Safety Week: Stephanie Berkeley - "For an industry so central to strengthening food security and growing the economy, those who work in farming are vulnerable"

There has been a lot of discussion recently about food security and how the food industry has a central role to play in the Government's levelling up agenda. 

It is present in every part of our country and is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, bigger than automotive and aerospace combined.

But it goes without saying that food manufacturers cannot succeed without the farmers who supply them with high quality produce. 

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For an industry so central to strengthening food security and growing the economy, those who work in farming are vulnerable.

New figures released on day one of Farm Safety Week show that farming continues to have the poorest safety record of any occupation with 27 people losing their lives on British farms in 2023/24.

Farm fatalities

In a sector that accounts for one per cent of the working population, agriculture still accounts for 20% of all deaths in the workplace.

The figures highlighted that, while the total number of people losing their lives on GB farms remained the same as the previous year, there was an increase in the number of farm workers killed in the workplace in 2023/24.

Nearly 40% of those workers had been over the age of 65 years.

It is a similar story in Northern Ireland where there were an additional seven farm-related workplace fatalities in the period 2023/2024, with one still under investigation, bringing the total to 34 people confirmed to have lost their lives on British farms over the past year.

According to HSE, farming has a worker fatal injury rate, the number of people killed for every 100,000 in a particular industry, 21-times higher than the rate across all-industries but why is this? 

Farms can be dangerous places to visit, to live and to work.

The fact is that there are more risks associated with farming than any other industry.

You can never make a farm 100% safe, but should we not at least try? 

For over a decade now, Farm Safety Week has been an important focus in the farming calendar and we are proud to manage and fund it.

In the year Farm Safety Week started, 37 people lost their lives on our farms and, over the past decade, this figure has been steadily decreasing. 

Yes, there have been improvements made over the years but we are just not seeing the widespread change in attitude towards safety, and behaviours that will bring those numbers down further. 

This figure is not zero, not yet and maybe not ever but it is a step in the right direction.

We are starting to see safety improvements in some areas, but the pace of change is slow - too slow for the 35 families that lost a loved one over the past year.

While the Farm Safety Foundation team are proud of what we have achieved, this report from HSE highlights there is still much more to be done to address the risks and dangers farm workers face every day providing food for the nation.

This year's Farm Safety Week offers an opportunity for a real reset of the way we approach farm safety and risk-taking.

As Sue Thompson, Head of Agriculture at the HSE said, 'The challenge now is whether farmers can fix the industry's broken health and safety record'.

I believe we can.

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