Agriculture in Transition: New Strategies for the Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety

Abstract

It is well documented that farming is a high-risk industry in terms of fatalities and injuries, and with numerous risk factors associated with operating the farm. It has also proved difficult to find evidence for the effectiveness of interventions. Moreover, farming is in transition, with ongoing technological transformations as well becoming increasingly more globalized. Thus, new perspectives that allow for more systemic understandings in the management and promotion of occupational health and safety (OHS) are needed. Our main objective is to present an integrated theoretical understanding of the farm as an enterprise and an integrated element in the political-economic agricultural system. The main question is how can farmers organize and manage the farm, in order to simultaneously improve efficiency, quality and OHS based on systemic models for OHS and a systemic understanding of the political-economical system of Norwegian agriculture? The framework is adapted to the Norwegian agricultural context, with ongoing transformations both technologically and organizationally, including visions and plans set by Norwegian agriculture itself. However, the framework can be applied irrespective of national context.