Farmworker Health

       There are many aspects to Farmworker's health that we want to make sure are taken into consideration when working on farms. Here are some links that talk about facts about farmworkers.
Here is a fact from the FLC Health website that surprises me every time I read it: "Agriculture is consistently ranked one of the three most dangerous occupations in the nation."


National Center for Farmworker Health, Inc.


Finger Lakes Community Health Facts


Here is another fact to make you think about farmworkers:
"The health status of migrant farm workers is at the same standard as third-world nations, while the country in which they work, the U.S., is one of the wealthiest nations on earth."



Don't forget to fill out our Community Survey for the three murals being painted at the festival! 
The link to the survey is:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zzccKYH4l_YlBtj1ufAKiX4RhUTr8wk0SxcxyegIk1k/viewform

Please fill it out! Anything you contribute to the survey will be contributed to the murals that will last a lifetime! The link is also on the right hand side



References:
Finger Lakes Community Health (2012). Did you know? interesting facts. Retrieved fromwww.ncfh.org. 

Community Survey!

      At the Occupational Health Clinical Center, we would like to invite you to fill out our community survey. Since the three murals are "Community Based Mural Painting Project" we would like feedback from the you. Anything you can provide us will be great!

What is the Survey about?     

We are looking for community input into a mural painting project that will reflect a common vision for an attainable and sustainable future that that honors the gifts, rhythms, and resources of the land, people, and wildlife our region.  Presented by Potsdam High School students, Massena Middle School Students, a Little River Student, and local farmers and friends.recreating, growing, growing up, growing old, caring for, preparing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, picking, processing, preserving, baking, singing, knitting, shaping, mowing, splitting, teaching.

Click the link below to fill out the survey!

North Country Local Living Survey



Meeting at Saint Lawrence University

If you haven't yet but are interested, Please Fill Out the Registration Form on the right hand side!! This Friday, April 12 is the last day for us to give our activity to the students!!

       Relani and I headed over to Saint Lawrence University on Friday to meet with Jon Ignatowski. He is working with Relani doing GIS Mapping of Saint Lawrence County with houses from pre 1970 that have lead paint on them. Little did we know he would actually help shape the ideas of the mural.
       We originally went over there to talk about what Relani wanted him to do with the GIS mapping at the Local Living Festival (Which is only two and half weeks away!). They started talking about the festival but then ended up talking about farmers health and safety and what our ideas were for the mural. He had wonderful ideas of what he could picture on the mural. An example he said " I could see two farmers at a fence smiling with a rooster or chicken of some sort on the ground". I could see that being protrayed in the mural. He also gave out the idea of having a picture of a farmer smiling looking healthy. He helped steer us in the right direction as to what we plan to give to the artist. I plan to try and IHMC CMap the ideas into a document to give to the artist so she can figure out how to put it all together.





Don't Forget the Local Living Festival is Saturday April 27! We hope to see you there!


Also Worker's Memorial Day in Massena: We are trying to find a place where we can get bricks made and engraved for the public to buy and donate to the Memorial. If you know of a local place in Saint Lawrence County that does this, send the contact information in a comment or email at ohccnc@gmail.com . Thanks, it would be greatly appreciated! The Memorial plans to be done before Labor Day. Sunday April 28 around 11am plans to be Worker's Memorial Day in Massena. I'll keep you posted on future details if things change.

Meeting With a Farmer

       Relani and I headed to meet up with a retired farmer, Judy Aldrich today. She knows so much about farming it was unreal. She stated to talk about things that I hadn't even considered to be a hazard on the farm. She also gave us an idea of what we should do for two of the murals. She is a great resource to be able to talk to and pick her brain of knowledge. I am so glad we had the chance to sit down and talk with her that I am completely sure we will be doing it again in the next few weeks.

A reminder to those reading the blog, it is only about 3 weeks away from the Local Living Festival! Saturday, April 27th is the date, so come and support the community and come paint the murals! For more information go to the right side of the blog and there is a link to the festival information. Also Worker's Memorial Day in Massena, New York is taking place on Sunday April 28th. The time is not set, but when it is I'll make sure to post an update. These next couple of weeks are going to fly by fast!

If you have any questions feel free to email us at ohccnc@gmail.com

We would love to hear what you think!

NYCAMH

NYCAMH stands for New York Center for Agriculture Medicine and Health. Their mission is to "Enhance agricultural and rural health by preventing and treating occupational injury and illness" (NYCAMH, 2013a). Some of the current research they are doing in agriculture is Injury Surveillance, Community Collaboration, ROPS, and Manure Ventilation. One of the most important is the ROPS, or Rollover Protective Structure. According to NYCAMH, tractor rollovers is one of the most fatal causes of death on a farm that could be prevented (2013b). With the ROPS, fatalities on a farm could drop by twenty five percent (NYCAMH, 2013b).

Here is more information about the ROPS:
Rollover Protective Structures


Let us know what you think about what is one of the most hazardous things for farmers by filling out the survey on the right hand side or by leaving a comment! Feel free to email us at ohccnc@gmail.com




References:
New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH), (2013a). Our mission.
         Retrieved from http://www.nycamh.com/about/history/

New York Center for Agricultrual Medicine and Health (NYCAMH), (2013b). ROPS. Retrieved from
         http://www.nycamh.com/research/current/rops.php

Local Living Festival!!

T h e   L o c a l   L i v i n g  V e n t u r e 

L o c a l   L i v i n g  Festival (LLF) ~  April 27, 2013

            Rural Skills Workshops ~ year-round!

           315. 347. 4223    *     PO Box 736 Canton, NY 13617

LocalLivingVenture@gmail.com * www.SustainableLivingProject.net

Sharing Knowledge from the Past  ~  Building Skills for the Future

  The Local Living Venture is part of Seedcorn, a 501(c)3 non-profit

          educational organization in the St. Lawrence River Valley

Local Food for Local Folks
.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As you already know the Local Living Festival will be held on Saturday April 27th from 9am-5pm. It is at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Learning Farm, 2043 Route 68 Canton, NY. This event is held every 18 months, once in the spring and once in the fall. This year the event is in the Spring of 2013! We are very excited to be attending this event and have been attending meetings to hear what things will be taking place. There will be hourly activites for everyone. If you would like to volunteer please email: LocalLivingVenture@gmail.com    ASAP to find out further details of what you can do.

Admission is 5 dollars per person, but it is free if younger than 16 years old.

Our three murals will be at the Local Living Festival ready for the community to paint it. Anyone is welcome to come and paint!

We have a link on the right hand side that goes directly to the Local Living Venture Website and the Festival details.

Solar Powered Tractor (St. Lawrence Nurseries) on display at the *Local Living
Festival* in 2011" PHOTO: *Local Living Venture* 2011*


For more information click the link below!
www.SustainableLivingProject.net/local-living-festival

We look forward to seeing you there!

Experiences in the Classrooms!

     We had a great couple of days in the classrooms this week! The students had so many great ideas and drawings! Here are a couple of pictures of Relani and I with the students.

(Premission of pictures from the Potsdam High School)

First we had the students do some hazard mapping of a layout of a farm. We wanted to students the get ideas of the different types of hazards on a farm. From there we had them pick one of the hazards that they felt was the most important to portray on the mural. Once they had picked a hazard we wanted them to come up with a solution to preventing it from happening on a farm. With the solution they picked, we wanted them to visualize how they could see it portrayed on the mural.

Relani and I explaining what to do with the harzard mapping of the farm.



Helping out groups with hazard mapping.







Potsdam Arts Teacher helping a group to come up with ideas.





Here are some photos of how some of the students would portray their ideas on a mural. This is what some of the groups had come up with.

There are more to come!

Let us know what you think of the ideas so far at Occupational Health. We want ideas from the community! Any input of your ideas would be great. Feel free to leave a comment or email us!!