There’s just something about the first few days of January that makes us take stock and want to change things for the better and at Yellow Wellies HQ we are no different…
Over the past month, we have worked with real farmers facing real challenges in their industry and have asked them to bring forward their resolutions by making a pledge to make one change to help them work safer – #MyOneChange. We were humbled and very grateful for the support we received from organisations, media and the farming community for this small but significant campaign.
Quite aside from Brexit, there are factors beyond any of our control that affect what our farmers face every day. However those factors should never impact on their personal safety. Farmers have always been practical scientists and shrewd businessmen but it isn’t it about time that they made a resolution to change their attitude to Farm Safety?
As an industry, we lose an average of 29 farm workers every year to workplace accidents so how can we honestly say that this is acceptable? And how can we not work together to do something about it?
The industry does not need, nor want regulation but without the collective will and a real commitment to challenging and changing risk how can this ever happen? We can not afford to allow others to shape this future but we all need to do our bit – make our own one change.
Here at the Farm Safety Foundation, wewill continue to engage, educate and inspire the next generation of farmers and we are calling on the industry as a whole to do the same.
Thank you to all the wonderful organisations and farm safety ambassadors we work with every day for your support. Special mention, however, must go to NFU Mutual who have been funding us for the past four years. Without their generous contribution we would not have been able to train over 3,500 agriculture students in 38 different land based colleges or create the Farm Safe module for the NFYFC which also helps us reach hundreds of their members. And of course there is Farm Safety Week which this year touched audiences across the five countries.
So thank you one and all and, as a new chapter in farming starts, we will make our New Year’s Resolution to keep raising awareness, and show that we CARE for farming by Challenging & Changing Agricultural Risk-taking Everyday
This is one resolution that we can not and will not break!
Stephanie Berkeley
