Think F.A.S.T in Keeping Farm Kids Safe
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I’m Haylie Shipp.
We are in the midst of Ag Safety Awareness Program week and, so often with ag safety, one of the things that we don’t want to talk about is the fact that kids get hurt on the farm. In fact, numbers from the CDC report that each year approximately 100,000 children under 20 years of age are injured on farms and over 100 are killed.
How do we teach kids the right way? Well, we set better examples. Carrie Walker is the Director of Member Engagement with the American Farm Bureau Federation. She talked about opening up lines of communication during this ag safety dedicated week. According to Walker, “We really take this week to focus on ways to improve farm practices, so we reduce the number of accidents and just create a network to have open communication between Farm Bureau safety and health professionals and volunteers to share resources.”
One of those resources that the American Farm Bureau does share is their “Think F.A.S.T Program.” F.A.S.T. standing for Farm and Ag Safety Training. This is an online program with 10 modules each taking about 10 minutes that is tailored for audiences in that 14- to 17-year old range. For details, visit https://www.fb.org/programs/safety-health/thinkfast/.
