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This paper investigates stories that are told in a North Queensland rural community about the arrival of itinerant farm workers for the winter harvesting season. Permanent residents often represent this annual event as an invasion of the community by undesirable people who break the law, exacerbate racial tensions and take jobs from locals. Such stories are also heard in the community's schools where significant numbers of itinerant children enrol during the harvesting season. In the face of sometimes hostile reception from permanent residents of the community, many itinerant families work hard to "fit in", trying to ensure positive experiences for their children. This paper explores some of the stories that circulate and examines the way that negative perceptions of itinerant families tend to restrict the community's capacity to recognise the benefits that families could contribute to community life. (Contains 3 endnotes.)

Seasonal farm workers play an important economic role through their contributions to annual harvests and the fact that they spend income in the community where they sojourn. However, research shows that farm workers and other temporary residents are often socially marginalised in rural communities and feel as though they are outsiders who do not belong. This paper reports research that focused on a primary school in a rural community in Australia, where seasonal mobile farm workers arrived for the annual harvest. Using a single case study design, the research demonstrated that the school made a deliberate attempt to welcome newly-arrived students and their families into the school community. Using a whole school strategy, the school staff aimed to meet families' and students' social needs, thereby building a sound foundation for the academic work of schooling. However, the data and data analysis also suggested that the school's strategy was helping to work against the deficit discourses that operated in the broader community, thus demonstrating the school's role as a hub for the community's socio-educational development.

Drawing on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork with Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) workers in south‐east Australia, I reflect in this paper on the experience of interminable temporariness and on its implications for the structural conditions underpinning contemporary horticultural labour in Australia. Although in many ways reflective of the specificities of a unique historical moment, the interminable temporariness experienced through the COVID‐19 pandemic also speaks to broader, enduring conditions produced within contemporary Australian agriculture. Here, the restructuring of the agri‐industry produces for many what Lauren Berlant describes as the "impasse" or "crisis ordinariness" of life under neoliberalism. At the same time, logics of development—including racialized imaginaries and border regimes—articulate with agricultural guest worker schemes in ways that seek to fix whole populations and regions in relations of suspended hope. In this context, I argue, the pandemic exposed and intensified structural vulnerabilities and unequal distributions of risk, which are encoded in the political economy of farm work in Australia, while also cleaving open new, if tentative, possibilities for agency and solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Farmers face a range of factors that negatively influence their mental health and suicide risk, yet have limited access to appropriate support. Behavioural activation (BA) is an evidence‐based therapy that can be effectively delivered by nonclinical workers. Working with members of farming communities to deliver BA to their peers has the potential to overcome many well‐established barriers to mental health help‐seeking and improve outcomes for this at‐risk group. Objective: This paper describes the findings of a co‐design phase informing the development of a peer (farmer)‐led approach for delivering BA for farmers living with depression or low mood. Design: This qualitative study used a co‐design approach involving members of the target community. Focus groups were transcribed and analysed using Thematic Analysis and the Framework approach. Findings: Ten online focus groups with 22 participants were held over 3 months. Four overarching, interlinked themes were identified: (i) filling the gap in rural mental health support; (ii) alignment with the farming context—tailoring how, where and when we engage about mental health; (iii) the 'messenger' is as important as the message; and (iv) sustainability, governance and support. Discussion: Findings suggest BA could be a contextually appropriate model of support for the farming community—given its practical and solution‐focused approach—and could help improve access to support. Having peer workers deliver the intervention was viewed as appropriate. Ensuring governance structures are developed to support peers to deliver the intervention will be essential to facilitate effectiveness, safety and sustainability. Conclusion: Insights gained through co‐design have been critical to the success of developing this new model of support for members of farming communities experiencing depression or low mood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To review and synthesise research related to the ageing farming workforce influence on the health and sustainability of agricultural communities. Design: Using the PRISMA framework as a guide, the CINHAL and Medline databases were searched. Search 1 used the key search terms of ageing OR aging, farm*, workforce. Search 2 used health, sustainability and 'agricultural OR farm communit*. Search 3 combined Searches 1 and 2. Search 4 followed journal citations to identify other relevant articles. A process of narrative synthesis was applied to the results through the prism of rural social capital that described the current state of knowledge and understanding under four themes. Result: Database searches and searching of citations identified 16 contemporary articles. Seven of the papers were from Australia, and the balance from five other high‐income countries. The four that themes emerged are: vulnerabilities of ageing farmers; economic and climatic drivers; social capital and sustainability; and integrative strategies, that might offer a way forward. Conclusion: Integrating these forces of nature, economics and sociology to address the ageing farming workforce and the associated health and sustainability of agricultural communities remains a major challenge for researchers, governments, the agricultural sector and rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ageing Australian farmers face many uncertainties associated with wider social, economic and climate change. Significantly for many farmers, ageing means the end not only of a life-long occupation but the end of the farm that has often been in the family for many generations. In turn, the prospect of this discontinuity breaches long-held cultural images of Australian farming and farmers. For individual male farmers approaching retirement age, the lack of succession and discontinuation of the family's ownership of, and attachment to the land, poses threats for social and personal identity. This paper examines the narratives of three male, baby-boom Australian farmers to tease out the impact of ageing and the possible loss of the family farm on the ways that they construct their situations and their self-identity. It illustrates the narrative practices that these men employ as they work to validate their self-identities within particular narrative environments, and through a range of outmoded and contemporary material conditions that mediate their selves and lives. The approach exemplified in this paper focuses on the processes and phases of analysis to show how the farmers craft their narrative as well as the individuality, complexity and coherence of their accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Deep weathering" is a geologic process that takes millions of years of seasonal wetting and drying of certain rocks to produce high levels of iron-oxide. The result is a rich, red soil, perfect for crops like sugar cane and sweet potatoes. Evidence of deep weathering is in the fertile soils of Bundaberg, a regional town in Australia with a violent colonial past, yet a key part of the nation's food production and hub for seasonal migrant workers. The region is a hive of mobility, millennia in the making, that epitomises contemporary debates on housing, migrant labour, global supply chains, and ecological destruction. This visual essay presents a series of creative experiments of making jam at roadside rest areas. Using a hiking stove, third-grade fruit the farm workers bring home, locally produced sugar, a hint of soil, the process is a creative conversation across geologic and human mobilities in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade a growing body of work situated at the intersection of masculinity and agriculture has emerged in the literature of rural sociology and human geography. A number of these studies have examined masculinity through discursive analytical frameworks which focus on the symbolic, cultural and embodied representations of what it is to be masculine in agriculture. It is with the latter that this paper is concerned. Here gender is located in a social constructionist framework and understood as something that is produced as a set of cultural practices which constitute men's and women's bodies in different ways. Two focus group discussions were conducted with ten young male dairy farmers in northern Victoria. A comparative analysis of the data suggests that perceptions from the masculine perspective of the non-farm work of women could be changing away from a traditional emphasis of a supportive and administrative role toward one where women's roles are acknowledged more as managerial in terms of the financial management of dairy farms. What also emerges from the young farmers' discourses is a degree of doubt and uncertainty about themselves and their own identities as managers. It would appear that they are far more confident in their roles as hands on farmers doing the outdoor physical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Farmers are faced with many stressors, along with numerous barriers to accessing traditional forms of mental health support. The ifarmwell online intervention was co-designed with farmers and is informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to equip farmers with transferable coping strategies, particularly to help them cope with circumstances beyond their control. We aimed to evaluate the effect of ifarmwell on farmers' short- and long-term distress and mental wellbeing. Methods: Australian farmers (21–73 years) who registered on completed measures at the commencement of module 1 (N = 228), the end of the intervention (N = 77) and 6-months post-intervention (N = 61). Primary outcomes included distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale) and mental wellbeing (Mental Health Continuum – Short Form). We also examined the relationship between distress, mental wellbeing, neuroticism (Quickscales-R) and ACT-based psychological mechanisms; psychological inflexibility (Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II), cognitive fusion (Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire), believability of automatic thoughts (Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-B), coping via acceptance (4 items from the situational COPE) and mindfulness (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form). Secondary outcomes of acceptability (Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8) and usability (System Usability Scale) were also explored. Results: Pre- to post-intervention, farmers' distress decreased and mental wellbeing increased. These effects were maintained at 6-month follow-up. Changes in these outcomes were greatest for participants who entered the intervention with high baseline distress ( β ˆ = −0.59, 95%CI =[−0.70, −0.47]) and low mental wellbeing ( β ˆ = −0.33, 95%CI = [−0.47, −0.19]). Decreases in distress and increases in mental wellbeing were associated with decreases in psychological inflexibility, cognitive fusion, and believability of thoughts, and increases in coping via acceptance and mindfulness. Levels of satisfaction (M = 26.92/32) and usability (M = 84.70/100) were high, and 94.6% of participants said they would recommend ifarmwell to a friend in need of similar advice and tools. Conclusions: ifarmwell is an effective and usable intervention that is likely to help farmers reduce their levels of distress and improve their mental wellbeing, by improving their psychological flexibility, ability to focus on the present and accept things beyond their control, as well as by reducing the extent to which they believe unhelpful thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal farm workers play an important economic role through their contributions to annual harvests and the fact that they spend income in the community where they sojourn. However, research shows that farm workers and other temporary residents are often socially marginalised in rural communities and feel as though they are outsiders who do not belong. This paper reports research that focused on a primary school in a rural community in Australia, where seasonal mobile farm workers arrived for the annual harvest. Using a single case study design, the research demonstrated that the school made a deliberate attempt to welcome newly-arrived students and their families into the school community. Using a whole school strategy, the school staff aimed to meet families' and students' social needs, thereby building a sound foundation for the academic work of schooling. However, the data and data analysis also suggested that the school's strategy was helping to work against the deficit discourses that operated in the broader community, thus demonstrating the school's role as a hub for the community's socio-educational development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore participant experiences of an online co‐design process to develop a web‐based preventative mental health and well‐being intervention targeting primary producers in rural Australia. Setting: Rural Victoria, Australia. Participants: Participants from a primary producer background, including horticulture, fisheries, animal cultivation and farm consultancy, were eligible for the study if they had participated in both the co‐design and beta testing processes for a primary producer platform. Design: A qualitative study using semi‐structured phone‐based interviews was undertaken. A reflexive inductive approach to data analysis was employed to develop themes. Results: Eleven participants were interviewed, with an average age of 51 years, of which 7 were female. Five main themes were developed. These included: (1) participant diversity, (2) impact of online delivery on co‐design participation, (3) experiences of the co‐design process, (4) maintaining a shared vision and goals and (5) acting on the co‐design recommendations. Use of online methods was a clear enabler to engage participants who were geographically dispersed and offers an alternative to more conventional approaches to co‐design using face‐to‐face methods. Some aspects of participant engagement may need a greater focus when conducted online compared with face‐to‐face. Conclusions: Using an online co‐design method to develop a preventative mental health and well‐being web‐based platform for primary producers was novel. Findings address a gap in the literature around the experience of participants engaging in a co‐design process and identify opportunities to improve participant engagement and experience with the online format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlamydia psittaci is a recognised cause of late‐term equine foetal loss and poses a zoonotic risk in Australia. However, a management strategy is lacking to protect at‐risk humans handling infected aborted material and pregnant mares. This study proposes a protocol for approaching C. psittaci foetal loss after investigating four foetal losses that occurred on a horse stud in the Hunter Valley, Australia in 2021. Swabs from the foetal loss cases (n = 4), close contact mares (n = 59), and foals of the close contact mares (n = 33) were collected and tested for C. psittaci using both isothermal points of care and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) laboratory‐based testing. Genotyping was performed utilising C. psittaci multilocus sequence typing and ompA sequencing from C. psittaci positive pooled foetal and placental (n = 3) DNA. Foetal and placental samples from the four foetal loss cases were all positive for C. psittaci with 100% agreement between the isothermal swab testing on the farm and qPCR DNA testing at an external laboratory. Genotyping revealed the clonal and identical sequence type 24 (ST24) C. psittaci strains in all samples. C. psittaci was not detected in close contact with mares or their foals. There was no statistically significant difference in foal survival between the close contact mare groups that did and did not receive antimicrobial intervention (P > 0.05). The proposed protocol is intended to raise awareness and begin a discussion for guidelines around handling of chlamydial foetal loss cases in late pregnant mares which pose a zoonotic threat to farm workers and veterinarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the United States and Australia rely extensively on migrant farmworkers, specifically those without lawful working permits, to meet their labor demands. This excessive dependence sparks debate over the effectiveness of immigration policies in safeguarding access to, and the sustainability of, the agricultural workforce. It also raises human rights concerns as migrant farmworkers often face a myriad of dangers and injustices on the job. In particular, undocumented farmworkers remain largely marginalized and exploited, but they are not entitled to full rights under the law, and they are reluctant to speak up against abusive labor practices due to their immigration status and the fear of detention and deportation. This Article aims to identify feasible immigration solutions for the United States and Australia to strengthen their short-term and long-term agricultural workforce, and to uphold migrant farmworkers’ rights. Part II of the Article reveals migrant farmworkers’ silent struggle and discusses the importance of agricultural labor reform. Part III and Part IV compare the two immigration systems and their respective responses to the workforce and human rights issues associated with the use of migrant farmworkers. The comparison primarily focuses on the H-2A visa program and the 2021 agricultural labor bill in the United States, as well as the temporary visa schemes and the amnesty proposal in Australia. The Article acknowledges the merits of the two immigration systems, but argues that weaknesses prevail in some aspects. The United States and Australia should look at each other’s practices and re-align their immigration policies so that they both create effective immigration systems that ensure the short-term and long-term agricultural workforce, and protect migrant farmworkers’ human rights. A brief conclusion re-emphasizes the importance of agricultural labor reform and highlights remaining concerns regarding the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Suicide prevention remains a priority in rural and remote Australia, where suicide rates continue to be higher than those in urban communities. This commentary describes the Good SPACE suicide prevention program, and the lessons learned from delivering this program over a 14‐year period. Context: The Good SPACE program has been operating in rural New South Wales since 2007. The program focuses on educating rural community members to recognise the signs of suicide vulnerability, and how to take appropriate action if they encounter someone considering suicide. Approach: Communities are selected to receive Good SPACE training in consultation with key stakeholder organisations, or by request from communities. Across the life of the program, key challenges in its administration have included short‐term funding arrangements and staff turnover. Strengths have included the ability to adapt content to meet the needs of rural communities (eg from an initial focus on helping farmers during periods of drought, to a broader focus on all rural residents and a wider range of adversities). As the program moves forward, emphasis will be placed on harder‐to‐reach populations, including males and those with lower mental health literacy. Conclusion: The Good SPACE program has ongoing funding to adapt its content and continue administration through the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (https://www.ramhp.com.au/). The lessons learned throughout the life of the program might be of use to other organisations aiming to provide community‐based education programs in rural and remote communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Releasing sterile or incompatible male insects is a proven method of population management in agricultural systems with the potential to revolutionize mosquito control. Through a collaborative venture with the "Debug" Verily Life Sciences team, we assessed the incompatible insect technique (IIT) with the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti in northern Australia in a replicated treatment control field trial. Backcrossing a US strain of Ae. aegypti carrying Wolbachia wAlbB from Aedes albopictus with a local strain, we generated a wAlbB2-F4 strain incompatible with both the wild-type (no Wolbachia) and wMel-Wolbachia Ae. aegypti now extant in North Queensland. The wAlbB2-F4 strain was manually mass reared with males separated from females using Verily sex-sorting technologies to obtain no detectable female contamination in the field. With community consent, we delivered a total of three million IIT males into three isolated landscapes of over 200 houses each, releasing ~50 males per house three times a week over 20 wk. Detecting initial overflooding ratios of between 5:1 and 10:1, strong population declines well beyond 80% were detected across all treatment landscapes when compared to controls. Monitoring through the following season to observe the ongoing effect saw one treatment landscape devoid of adult Ae. aegypti early in the season. A second landscape showed reduced adults, and the third recovered fully. These encouraging results in suppressing both wild-type and wMel-Ae. aegypti confirms the utility of bidirectional incompatibility in the field setting, show the IIT to be robust, and indicate that the removal of this arbovirus vector from human-occupied landscapes may be achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To identify the modifiable psychological and behavioural coping strategies associated with low levels of psychological distress, independent of more stable personality and demographic factors, in a sample of farmers who reported being exposed to a recent stressful event during an extended drought. Design/setting/participants: Three hundred and nine South Australian, drought‐affected grain, sheep and/or cattle farmers completed printed or online questionnaires. Only those who reported experiencing a stressful event in the past month that they rated ≥7 on a scale ranging from 1 (not stressful at all) to 10 (extremely stressful) were included in the analyses (n = 175, 65.06%). Participants ranged in age from 24 to 85 years and 40% were female. Main outcome measures: Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, and coping strategies were measured using a situational version of the COPE inventory. Five personality factors (extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness) were assessed using the Quickscales‐R. Results: In the final multivariable model, distress was elevated among individuals reporting higher neuroticism and behavioural disengagement, and lower in individuals reporting greater use of acceptance. These 3 variables explained 44% of the variance in distress. Conclusion: Farmers recently exposed to a significant stressor, who used acceptance as a coping strategy, did not engage in behavioural disengagement and scored low on neuroticism, were least likely to experience distress. Given the stability of personality factors, interventions that foster farmers' use of acceptance and prevent behavioural disengagement as coping strategies might assist them with the management of future stressors, particularly in times of drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant farmworkers dominate the horticultural workforce in many parts of the Minority (developed) World. The 'manual' work that they do—picking and packing fruits and vegetables, and pruning vines and trees—is widely designated unskilled. In policy, media, academic, activist and everyday discourses, hired farm work is framed as something anybody can do. We interrogate this notion with empirical evidence from the Sunraysia horticultural region of Australia. The region's grape and almond farms depend heavily on migrant workers. By-and-large, the farmers and farmworkers we spoke to pushed back against the unskilled tag. They asserted that farmworkers acquire knowledge and skills over time and that experienced farmworkers are valuable—their value being brought into sharp relief against accounts of inexperienced farmworkers' errors. Our interviewees provided rich insights into farmworkers' engagements with crops and the intricacies of picking and pruning well. Far from being bereft of knowledge and skills, they recognised that experienced farmworkers bring benefits. They improve productivity, product quality and ultimately profits. This is especially so when open communication channels exist across the farm hierarchy, when experienced farmworkers' insights are taken seriously by their employers. Our research is informed by organisational studies literature and scholarship on craft/making. Like factory floor workers and artisans, experienced farmworkers bring accumulated knowledge and skills to their work, gained through repeat performance. They reflect on and adjust their activities in dialogue with their materials and the environment. Experienced farmworkers demonstrate care, dexterity and judgement. They are not unskilled, and they are more than labouring bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Rural communities in Australia have an elevated risk of suicide. The aim of the current study was to evaluate a well‐being and suicide prevention education workshop, SCARF (Suspect, Connect, Ask, Refer, Follow‐Up) developed for Australian farming and rural communities. Methods: The SCARF program was delivered to 14 groups, a convenience sample including frontline agricultural workers and farmers from New South Wales. The Literacy of Suicide Scale, Stigma of Suicide Scale, and items assessing confidence to assist others were administered immediately before and after the workshop, and at 3‐month follow‐up. The Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale was given immediately before and at 3‐month follow‐up. In total, 255 agreed to participate in the study, with 127 completing 3‐month follow‐up. Data were analyzed using linear mixed‐effects regression. Findings: There was a significant increase in suicide literacy and confidence to assist others immediately after the workshop, which remained significant at 3‐month follow‐up. Mental well‐being significantly improved at 3‐month follow‐up. Conclusion: The SCARF program is unique for its brevity, cultural specificity, focus on health, and incorporation of the biopsycho‐ecological model and the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide. It represents a useful program for Australian farming and rural communities to improve mental well‐being, suicide literacy, and confidence to recognize and respond to suicidality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers and farm workers have been recognized as a group at high risk of suicide in Australia. This study aims to identify and better understand environmental factors associated with suicide among Australian farmers and farm workers. Qualitative analysis was undertaken in accordance with the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. Male and female focus groups were conducted separately with people who lived or worked on a farm in six farming communities. Qualitative analyses showed that a number of environmental influences may contribute to the increased risk of suicide: extreme climatic events; isolation; service availability; access to, and frequent use of firearms; death and suffering of animals; government and legislation; technology; and property values. Both the physical and socio-cultural environments in which farmers operate appear to contribute to farmer suicide and need to be considered in suicide prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study assesses nonintentional injury deaths of older farmers and the causal agents associated with these fatalities in Australia (2001–2015). It also explores approaches based on the hierarchy of risk controls to reduce fatalities and injuries in this cohort. Methods: Data on farm-related incidents were sourced from the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) for the study period and coded. Rates were calculated and regression analyses completed to assess trends over time. Results: Those in the 50+ years category (n= 610) accounted for 49.8% of all on-farm nonintentional injury deaths, with males (n= 566) dominating the cases. The annual mean was 40.66 cases (SD= 8.08) and the average rate 36/100,000. Trend analysis revealed a nonstatistically significant (P< 0.05) increase in cases over the period. Farm vehicles and machinery were responsible for almost two thirds of the fatal cases. Conclusion: Nonintentional fatality rates for older farmers have remained relatively unchanged for a significant period in Australia. There is a need to examine additional approaches that not only maintain the benefits of work activity for older farmers but also balance this against a safety perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farming families in rural and remote parts of the world are often marginalized from social care. This article describes a phenomenological exploration of problems presenting to financial counsellors in remote south-eastern Australia. Individual and family issues, referral processes and professional competencies have been identified, along with suggested changes to service delivery. Complex psycho-social difficulties are revealed. Financial counsellors, working in isolation, are unable to adequately address these. However, no social work service has been accessible to many consumers living in remote farming communities. Social work, within interdisciplinary partnerships, is being piloted as a result of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose Alcohol consumption patterns nationally and internationally have been identified as elevated in rural and remote populations. In the general Australian population, 20.5% of adult males and 16.9% of adult females drink at short-term, high-risk levels. Farmers are more likely to drink excessively than those living in major cities. This study seeks to explore the relationships between farmers' physical and mental health and their alcohol consumption patterns. Our hypothesis is that farmers consume alcohol at high-risk levels more often than the Australian average and that this consumption is associated with obesity and psychological distress. Methods Cross-sectional descriptive data were collected within Australian farming communities from 1,792 consenting adults in 97 locations across Australia. Data on anthropometric measurements, general physical attributes and biochemical assessments were used to explore the interrelationships of self-reported alcohol consumption patterns with obesity, psychological distress, and other physical health parameters. Findings There was a higher prevalence of short-term, high-risk alcohol consumption (56.9% in men and 27.5% in women) reported in the study compared with national data. There was also a significant positive association between the prevalence of high-risk alcohol consumption and the prevalence of obesity and abdominal adiposity in psychologically distressed participants. Conclusions The prevalence of short-term, high-risk alcohol consumption practices in this cohort of farming men and women is significantly higher than the Australian average. These consumption practices are coupled with a range of other measurable health issues within the farming population, such as obesity, hypertension, psychological distress, and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, psychological distress and associations between physical and mental health parameters within a cohort of the Australian farming community. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting: Farming communities across Australia. Participants: Data of men ( n = 957) and women ( n = 835) farmers from 97 locations across Australia were stratified into categories based on National Cholesterol Education Program guidelines. Main outcome measure(s): Prevalence of and interrelationship between overweight, obesity, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes risk and psychological distress. Results: There was a higher prevalence of overweight (42.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI), 34.2-50.8), obesity (21.8%, 95% CI, 18.3-25.3), abdominal adiposity (38.4% 95% CI, 24.5-52.5), hypertension (54.0%, 95% CI, 34.4-73.5) and diabetes risk (25.3%, 95% CI, 17.7-36.7) in the farming cohort compared with national data. There was also a positive significant association between the prevalence of psychological distress and obesity, abdominal adiposity, body fat percentage and metabolic syndrome in older (age ≥ 50 years) participants. Conclusions: This study group of farming men and women exhibited an increased prevalence of CVD risk factors and co-morbidities. The findings indicate a positive association between psychological distress and risk for developing CVD, particularly in the older farmers. If the younger cohort were to maintain elevated rates of psychological distress, then it is foreseeable that the next generation of farmers could experience poorer physical health than their predecessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the all‐cause and specific‐cause death rates of Australian male farmers and farm managers aged 25–74 years, with other Australian men. Methods: Data were extracted from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Death Registration Collection covering the calendar years of 1999–2002. Denominator data for male farmers and farm managers were drawn from the 2001 Australian Population Census. Direct age‐standardized death rates were calculated and compared with the general Australian male population. Results: The 4025 male farmers or farm managers who died in this period represented 3.35% of all male deaths in the 25–74 year age range. The all‐cause death rate for farmers and farm managers (730/100 000) was 33% higher than that of the Australian male population of the same age (549/100 000) (standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = 1.33). Causes of death related to neoplasms (SMR = 1.37), circulatory disease (SMR = 1.40) and all external causes (SMR = 1.37), were all statistically higher than the comparison population. Within these groupings, ischaemic heart disease (SMR = 1.39), other circulatory disease (SMR = 1.42), prostate cancer (SMR = 2.40), lymphohaematopoietic cancer (SMR = 1.80) and transport injuries (SMR = 2.06), were all significantly higher. Conclusion: These data indicate that Australian male farmers and farm managers are a disadvantaged group in terms of health status. The elevated rates of all‐cause and specific‐cause mortality compared with the Australian comparison population, illustrate both the need and scope for further investigation of these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the hearing status and behaviors of Australian farmers from 1994-2001 with those from 2002-2008. Over this period the authors found (1) there was a 12.5% overall improvement in the proportion of farmers with normal hearing in left ears, with the likelihood of a screening participant having normal hearing improving by almost 9% each year; (2) significant improvements in the mean hearing threshold of both ears from 1 to 6 kHz; (3) significantly higher mean hearing thresholds for 35- to 44-year-old farmers exposed to firearms, chainsaws, workshop tools, heavy machinery, and tractors with cabins compared to nonexposed groups; (4) nonuse of hearing protection devices by young farmers (15 to 24 years old), was associated with hearing loss for those using uncabined tractors. Despite a reduction in noise injury, further adoption of noise reduction strategies for specific agricultural work practices is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the restructuring of agriculture in Australia. The productivity and efficiency of farmers has assumed increasing significance on the political agenda of many Western nations since the late 1960s. Issues such as the globalization of production, the emergence of global regulation, the substitution of labor with capital, changes in consumption patterns, and the declining contribution of agriculture to national gross national product have all contributed to an increased international concern with the restructuring of agricultural industries. The emergence of a low-income farm problem in Australian agriculture toward the end of the 1960s is inseparable from its production through the practices of agricultural economists. The author examines the discursive practices through which some rural producers were constituted, from the late 1960s, as a threat to the ongoing security of Australian agriculture. The article draws attention to how seemingly neutral attempts to describe low-income farms, and diagnose solutions, sought to constitute farm viability as a domain of knowledge on which only economists could authoritatively speak.