Food Ethics Council

Agriculture accounts for 68 percent of land use in the UK but employs less than one percent of the workforce. Between 235,000 and 345,000 documented migrants are employed in the industry each year, after deductions often earning only £70 a week. Farm workers face the worst fatal injury rate of any major employment sector with 45 deaths recorded last year and 400,000 working days lost to illness and injury. Worldwide, agriculture accounts for around half of the 335,000 fatal workplace accidents each year. Farmers also have one of the highest occupational suicide rates in the world – in India, 150,000 committed suicide in the last decade and at present six do so every day.

Frances Pollitzer
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