Agriculture remains a highly dangerous industry for occupational health and safety. This study sought to understand the perspective of agricultural professionals with respect to the current state of the industry, challenges, and opportunities relevant to occupational health and safety. Additional questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the findings as well. Eleven industry professionals were interviewed, and the transcripts were qualitatively analyzed for emergent themes following a constant comparative method. Three themes emerged in our findings: a description of the current state of occupational health and safety in the agricultural industry, barriers to improving occupational health and safety, and enablers of occupational health and safety. Each theme contained subthemes. The description of the industry encompassed regulations, inherent danger, and attitudes and education. Barriers included education, health care access, logistics, discrimination and cultural competency, economic considerations, and the labor contracting system. Enablers included education, regulations, and health care and prevention. These findings are consistent with existing literature, revealing interconnected and overlapping challenges and opportunities. Further research is recommended with a broader sample of participants, especially farmworkers.

Historical repository of UF/IFAS Extension numbered publications made available on the EDIS website. UF/IFAS Extension is a federal, state, and county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences and to making that knowledge accessible to sustain and enhance the quality of human life.

By 2030, the world population is projected to reach approximately 9.7 billion. One of the core objectives of the global sustainable development goals (SDGs), adopted from the 1996 World Food Summit, is to eradicate hunger by that time, meaning ensuring food security for all. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines food security as follows: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” Conceptually, it is posited that food security can be understood as a nexus of four elements: Food security = Availability + Access + Utilization + Stability of a food system. This study focused specifically on the food availability component of food security. It addresses a critical gap in the existing literature: the limited understanding of the role farmworkers and their families play in sustaining food systems. Specifically, it explores how the children of Haitian farmworkers in the United States perceive agricultural labor through the lens of their family’s experiences, including their personal willingness to engage in it and their advocacy for others to pursue such work. Although qualitative in nature, this study employed the Political Economy of the Food System, also referred to as Agrifood Systems Theory or the Political Ecology of Food Systems, as its guiding theoretical framework, as it aligns closely with the study’s objectives. The data were collected between December 2022 and June 2023. The sample consisted of eight young adults (ages 18 to 29), all of Haitian descent. Overall, the findings indicated that participants commonly reported feeling a sense of inferiority and a lack of interest in and respect for farmwork as a profession during their upbringing, particularly in comparison to peers from non-farmworker households and those outside of their immediate communities. This sense of inferiority was attributed to several factors, including their upbringing, the inherent vulnerability associated with farm work, and the long-term physical toll agricultural work had on both themselves and their parents. The study’s findings carry important implications for practitioners, scholars, policymakers, and all stakeholders involved in achieving food security. They underscore the urgent need to reform labor policies and improve the conditions surrounding farm work, making it a more appealing, dignified, desirable, and sustainable occupation in the face of a growing world population.