Project to Examine How Conservation Agriculture Affects Farm Workers

Penn State University and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay received a $250,000 grant from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program to study how conservation agriculture practices affect the well-being of dairy farm workers and farm families. The research will explore the social and workplace impacts of conservation agriculture practices such as cover cropping, reduced tillage, manure management strategies and riparian forest buffers on the farmers and workers who perform them. Project leader Kathleen Sexsmith explains that implementing conservation agriculture practices can lead to longer work hours, physical fatigue, increased heat exposure, and uncertainty about how additional labor and effort are valued, and these concerns may represent a barrier to broader adoption of conservation agriculture practices. This project will assess how conservation agriculture practices affect occupational safety and health risks, working schedules and compensation, and work satisfaction.