Good health is vital to the roles that agricultural workers play in sustaining our food supplies, caring for our environment, and safeguarding the social fabric of rural communities. EU policies, including the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), can be coordinated to help improve the overall well-being of our agricultural work force, as well as the wider rural population.

Farming is considered amongst the most dangerous jobs in Europe. The EU-funded Horizon research project focused on Strengthening the farm health and safety knowledge and innovation systems in Europe reports that: “European statistics show fatality rates in farming as 233% higher than other industries and the accident rate is 18% higher”.

Such concerns are reflected in the work of another Horizon project aiming to help improve farmers’ mental, physical, and social well-being in the Farmwell initiative.

This network gathers practitioners from different Member States and has mapped farmer health matters across Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Romania to gain better insights for policy makers and other stakeholders.