The hazardous nature of agricultural employment is widely discussed, and there are certainly “opportunities” for serious injuries on farms, from working with large animals, manure impoundments, large machinery, driving large and heavy vehicles on rural roadways and many more. Reports of fatalities by industry and employment classification indicate that agricultural fatalities to this point in 2025 are significantly less than other industries in California.

In its December 12 issue, Cal/OSHA Reporter published statistics indicating that construction employers experienced 62 fatalities through December 9; landscaping, 16; manufacturing, 15; and agriculture 14, followed by services (10), retail (9), transportation (7), automotive (7) and various types of employment with single-digit figures.

It is important to keep these figures in their proper perspective. Our goal at FELS is to help our members ensure the safety and health of their employees by proper compliance with Cal/OSHA regulations, employee training, best safety practices and rigorous attention to maintenance of machinery and tools. Sixty-two fatalities is a tragedy for our friends in the construction industry, and if you work in parts of our state where construction contractors and subcontractors reside and base their operations, you probably know someone in that business, or you attend church with them or your kids attend school with their kids. I know I’m personally acquainted with a number of safety and HR professionals and policy advocates who work for construction employers who in their past lives did construction work with their own hands. I’m certain that construction employers strive to send their employees home safe and sound at the end of each workday, as you do in agriculture. Thousands of construction subcontractors working on construction sites employ hundreds of thousands of employees who they regard as family, and in many cases they are literally related by blood and marriage. Anyone reading this on FELS’ website has no doubt experienced something similar on the farms and ranches where you work.

Fourteen fatalities is fourteen too many, and I’m certain everyone reading this wishes the number was zero. I breathed a small sigh of relief when I read the Cal/OSHA Reporter article I’m referring to, but I hope we can do better — much better. We owe it to those fourteen men and women and their families and loved ones to be better in the future.

As we come to the end of 2025, I thank you for being a FELS member, reading the FELS Newsletter or FELS eNews, for buying and using FELS products that are intended to ease your efforts to be an employer of choice in your community and for all you do to nourish the rest of us.