Rural Project Examples Addressing Farmers and farmworkers

Farm Dinner Theater

Updated/reviewed November 2024

Need: To encourage farmers to make health and safety changes on their farms.
Intervention: Farm Dinner Theater is an event in which farmers and their families watch three 10-minute plays covering health and safety topics and then discuss solutions to the issues addressed in each.
Results: In a study, farmers who attended the plays were more likely to make changes and tell others what they learned, compared to farmers who received an educational packet with the same information.

Updated/reviewed January 2024

Need: To deliver information about cervical cancer to rural Hispanic women in the United States.
Intervention: The development of a lay health worker (promotora) curriculum that provided information on cervical cancer, HPV, and the HPV vaccine to Hispanic farmworker women living in rural southern Georgia and South Carolina.
Results: Significant increases in post-test scores relating to cervical cancer knowledge and increases in positive self-efficacy among promotoras.

Updated/reviewed November 2024

Need: Farmers are highly susceptible to permanent hearing loss due to prolonged exposure to loud machinery and livestock.
Intervention: Faculty and students from the audiology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison supplied earplugs, free hearing testing, and hearing loss prevention education to attendees and participants at an annual tractor pull event.
Results: Between 2014 and 2019, the audiology team distributed more than 16,000 pairs of earplugs; attendees were receptive to the hearing loss prevention education provided by the team.

Updated/reviewed October 2024

Need: To reduce injuries in agricultural communities and improve emergency responders' preparedness when called to farms and ranches.
Intervention: RF-DASH equips rural fire/EMS personnel and others with agricultural health and safety knowledge and tools to pre-plan for agricultural emergencies as well as assess and then mitigate agricultural hazards.
Results: Over 150 firefighters and EMTs have received training to become RF-DASH trainers.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To reduce farm injuries and improve EMS and fire/rescue's response to these injuries in rural Louisiana and Mississippi.
Intervention: AGRIMEDIC is a two-day training for first responders.
Results: 810 first responders have received training.

Updated/reviewed February 2024

Need: To help farmers with disabilities continue farming while protecting their well-being.
Intervention: The FARM program helps disabled or ill farmers continue to operate and work their Wisconsin farms.
Results: Since 2009, the FARM Program has helped over 3,500 farmers continue to farm, resume farming, or find an alternative agricultural occupation.

Updated/reviewed January 2024

Need: To increase access to healthy foods in two rural Nevada counties.
Intervention: HCC and the Rural Health and Nutrition Initiative (RHNI) run food pantries, assist with community and school gardens, and have a farmers market during the summer.
Results: The three food pantries together serve about 3,600 people and distribute over 100,000 pounds of food each month.

Updated/reviewed October 2023

Need: Men in the agriculture industry face high suicide rates due to factors including long hours, geographic isolation, lack of social opportunities, and stigma surrounding mental health care.
Intervention: The Coffee Break Project, a program led by Valley-Wide Health Systems, Inc. in southeastern Colorado, encourages mental health check-ins for farmers and ranchers through a public awareness campaign and casual coffee gatherings that utilize COMET, an intervention model developed specifically for rural communities.
Results: Between eight and 20 people typically attend each coffee gathering.

Updated/reviewed November 2020

Need: Preventive and chronic medical condition care for farm families/agribusiness owners/employees with time and monetary constraints.
Intervention: Through a "Kitchen Wellness" program, a trained healthcare professional provides in-home or on-site complimentary preventive health screening, educational materials, and community referral information.
Results: Completion of hundreds of health screenings, tailored health education sessions and referral information.

Updated/reviewed May 2020

Need: Agricultural producers and Pennsylvania's diverse farmworker population needed guidance on complying with Environmental Protection Agency regulations on the safe use of pesticides used in agricultural production.
Intervention: An outreach education program providing compliance and technical assistance for growers was developed which included culturally appropriate training materials targeted to workers.
Results: Pesticide use training and other farm safety information is now readily available to Pennsylvania's farmers and farmworkers.