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One headline I want to loseOn my last trip to Wisconsin I learned about what must be the worst life experience anyone could ever have to endure, the loss of a child. Matt Anderson, the most recently retired president of the Wisconsin FFA Association, was killed in a farm related accident. When an unthinkable event such as this occurs, the only alternative we have is to find a way to somehow turn this situation around and create a positive impact. If you ever had any doubts about how many lives a young person can touch, I will share this with you. RaeNell Halber, a Wisconsin dairywoman and local farm broadcaster, told me that she waited in line for three hours to pay her respects to the Anderson family. The power of youth! We truly need to embrace and understand it, hopefully without grim reminders such as this. All of this coincides with a report recently released by the National Consumer League (NCL). The report listed agriculture at the top of the five worst teen jobs for 2007, primarily due to safety considerations. I know many of us, in the farming community, may not want to recognize the dangers of farming, but let's draw on the loss of this young man to better prepare for the future. In addition, NCL noted that agriculture is the most dangerous industry for youth, accounting for 42 percent of all work-related fatalities of young workers between 1992 and 2000. "Many teens are working in unsafe conditions without proper training or supervision," added NCL. "A young worker is injured on the job (not just in farm-related work) every two minutes, and one teen dies due to workplace injuries every five days." We must all acknowledge that agriculture has labor challenges today that are unlike those at any time in our nation's history. We recognize that we could do a better job in communicating the preventative measures that should accompany working with moving parts and livestock. The language barrier cannot be used as an excuse for not properly supplying adequate information to workers of all ages on our farms. In regard to health care for our farmers and ranchers, there is a tremendous program in the state of Illinois that needs to be recognized as well. Mark Meurer, the director of Recruiting and Public Relations for the University of Illinois Medical School's R-MED program, joined me on my Rural Route radio program. Once again this year Mark organized the "No Harm on the Farm" tour of a modern livestock facility for these second-year medical students. Just as we must recognize the dangers that lie in farm work, it is equally important for the rural medical providers to have information about what dangers farm workers face and the treatments they may need to provide. I can personally remember two emergency room visits where I was the object of study by other medical personnel. On my first visit to the ER, to sew up a laceration in my rear thigh from the tusk of an old boar, I was exposing otherwise unexposed parts to nearly every medical student in the university hospital as they were paraded through to get a glimpse of what a male hog can do. On numerous occasions I was reminded just how close the 3-inch-deep cut came to hitting that main artery in my leg. On my second visit to the ER, my mule was trying to determine how high a guy would spring off of a five wire barbed fence if he hit it at a dead run. Let's just say that I have identified a benefit of abdominal fat that the CDC has overlooked. We have all been in those near miss situations and I can only hope that as our fast paced lives continue to get faster, we pause long enough to recognize the loss of a young person, and understand that the loss his family had to endure should make us slow down and think. It only takes a split second in the course of a day to turn our lives around forever. As we enter the busy harvest season, please join me in taking an extra moment to be safe and to pass on the message of safety to all those involved in your operation. Let's make it our business to be sure that other young lives aren't lost because of the dangers of involving youth on American farms. Their loss is one headline we can live without. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. 9/17/07
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