Major international farm safety and farmer health conference to be held in Ireland
Teagasc will host a major international conference on farm safety and farmer wellbeing from August 23rd to August 25th 2023 at Teagasc Research and Innovation Centre, Dunsany, Grange, Co. Meath and Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin 15. The conference has attracted researchers from the USA, Australia and across the EU and UK.
Thirty papers will be delivered over the course of three days covering three topics; Farm safety – From research to practice; Policy and culture; and, Farmer Wellbeing. Participants will also visit Teagasc’ facilities at Grange and Ashtown to view safety demonstrations. There will a visit to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s facilities at Backweston, Co. Kildare, where participants will hear from policy stakeholders and tour the facilities.
Three keynote presentations will be delivered by eminent international experts:
Professor Julie A. Sorensen – Director and Research Scientist - Northeast Centre for Occupational Health and Safety in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing/New York Centre for Agricultural Medicine and Health;
Professor Peter Lundqvist – Professor of Work Science at the Department of Agricultural Biosystems and Technology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences;
Professor Alison Kennedy – Director of the National Centre for Farmer Health, Australia. These presentations will focus on understanding why people engage in safe and unsafe practices, the challenges to farmer mental health and wellbeing and how these challenges can be met.
Speaking in advance of the conference, Dr David Meredith, leader of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine sponsored BeSAFE (Farm Safety Behaviours) Project said; “Ireland is at the forefront of undertaking and leading research into farm safety and farmer health and the conference is an opportunity to showcase issues and approaches that we are currently working on. We are also keen to show how this research makes an impact, whether that be on a farm, or supporting policy, or strategy development, by working with farmers, advisors and policy stakeholders,” he added.
Dr Meredith stated that the conference allows those interested in the issue of farm safety, or farmer health, to learn from the knowledge and experiences of researchers from across the EU, Australia and the USA.”
There are a limited number of places available at the conference which is organised as part of the DAFM funded BeSAFE project. BeSAFE is led by Teagasc in partnership with colleagues in University College Dublin and Galway University. Anyone interested in attending is asked to email Dr Mohammad Mohammdrezaei at Mohammad.Mohammadrezaei@teagasc.ie to make a reservation.