Agriculture
Farming is by far the world’s most common occupation. Sustainable practices in agriculture are critical to our food security, human health, and environmental health.
Today, most of the world’s poverty is rural. Agricultural workers tend to be among the poorest members of society, often with inadequate housing, little to no health care, and few educational opportunities. Large numbers of children work in agriculture because their families cannot otherwise support them. Forced labor are present in many agricultural communities. Rural poverty forces many small farmers to give up their land and migrate to cities to look for work. This migration takes productive energy out of the countryside, where it’s needed, and adds to city populations which in turn creates more social problems. Also, this migration often leads to environmental destruction in the countryside.
Farm work is among the world’s most dangerous occupations. Heavy machinery causes many injuries and deaths. Agro-chemicals, used to kill pests, also kill and sicken thousands of farmers. Agrochemicals are linked to long-term illnesses, reproductive problems, and harm to the earth and its resources.
Efforts to address all of these issues--and to build socially sustainable agriculture--should be focused on providing decent living and working conditions, sustainable livelihoods for farmers. Farmers and other agricultural workers should be able to live in dignity with basic rights and freedoms. There should be an end to forced labor, child labor, and discrimination.
Key Statistics
* Half of the world’s labor force is in the agriculture.
* Of the 1.3 billion women, men and children who work in agriculture, 450 million work for wages.
* Women account for over half of agricultural labor
* Seventy percent of the world’s working children are involved in agriculture.
* Agriculture is one of the top three dangerous occupations, along with construction and mining.
* 170,000 agricultural workers die each year in workplace accidents.
* The fatal accident rate in agriculture is double that of other industries.
* 40,000 agricultural workers die each year from agro-chemicals.Summarized from the International Labor Organization's Fact Sheet (go to original).