Agricultural security: socioeconomic and political factors
The nature of farm work and security are conditioned to some extent by the fact that farming is often seen as a way of life, rather than a formal occupation or job. In many ways this is true, though not to undermine the sheer amount of hard work and productivity that farming entails. The view that farming is a way of life means that it does not have the framework or pressures that a normal job does to mitigate risk and reinforce a safety mindset.
kindergarten
In today’s world of work, companies, except that they need some form of day care, provide it or compensate for it in terms of time and cost for their staff. In agriculture this is much more unlikely to happen.
Child or infant care is likely to take place in the context of a working farm, which means that parents and caregivers are physically part of the environment in which they work. This is likely to lead to boundary confusion and potentially increased security risks.
Legislation on safety and health at work
While much progress has been made in the workplace and factory with regard to health and safety, many regulations exempt certain industries, including ranching and agriculture. This is because regulations are often very difficult to frame in such a way that they are relevant to agriculture. There is also a strong will to enforce in agriculture and as such they are often not legally enforceable.
cultural beliefs
Stemming from the belief that farming is a way of life, many people believe that farming and all types of farm work are, by their very nature, dangerous and unpredictable, and that there is often little that can be done to increase security. Sometimes there is a belief that the nature of the risk simply has to be accepted. This can lead to a sense of complacency or simply a belief that health and safety does not apply to agriculture and other industries in the same way.
market forces
Farmers, perhaps more than anyone else, are subject to market forces in terms of the prices of their produce, and as such often view health and safety costs as something that they cannot recoup and is therefore less They probably want to spend money on it.
self sufficiency
The nature of farming means that it is a very self-sufficient profession, with farmers relying heavily on their own instincts, intuition and experience. It also means that there is self-sufficiency in risk assessment for any type of security issue, which can vary widely for fairly obvious reasons.
The lack of a formal risk assessment process or enforcement of health and safety legislation does not mean that farmers are not open to awareness of the risks associated with their work. On the contrary, many are and are very careful in trying to minimize and avoid risk to people and property wherever possible.
It means that the question of self-sufficiency makes your judgment very personal, which at certain times will simply not be enough. They do not have the benefit of a much broader experience base than is normally made by a judgment of most health and safety legislation, and the application of a risk model or risk assessment basis.
