Co-Principal Investigator

Youth who work on farms in the United States experience a fatality rate that is 3.6 times higher than young worker rates in all other industries and almost 3 times the rate among workers of all ages in all industries combined for 1992-2002 (Hard & Myers, 2006). Farm children and adolescents also experience high rates of non-fatal injury: The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that 22,648 agriculture-related injuries occurred among children and adolescents under the age of 20 who lived on, worked on, or visited a farm operation in 2001 (USDA, 2004). Youth ages 16-19 accounted for 23 percent of these 22,648 reported injuries (USDA, 2004). The goal of this study was to illustrate how safety behaviors are cost effective from an individual’s perspective and from a larger social perspective. Partnerships for Preventing Farming-related Injuries to Rural Youth (PFIRY) was a 2-year pilot project (September 2004-September 2006). It used narrative simulation exercises and their associated interactive Excel cost-analysis tools to engage students ages 16 to 19 in four rural counties to think critically about the personal and societal costs of farming-related injuries and the cost-effectiveness of their prevention. The project had three broad aims