Agriculture in West Virginia - WVATS Newsletters

WVATS Newsletter Articles - 2001

New West Virginia AgrAbility Project

West Virginia has received a four-year AgrAbility grant that started April 1, 2001. The West Virginia University Agriculture Extension Service, the Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living (NWVCIL) and WVATS formed a coalition to apply for the grant. The Extension Service is the lead agency and the NWVCIL is the agency with reponsibility for service delivery. WVATS is responsible for information and referral services, materials development, and will share training responsibilities. Inetta Arbogast, NWVCIL staff member and WVATS Tech Team liaison for the Elkins and Eastern Panhandle Tech Teams, will coordinate resources and services to farm families.

The AgrAbility Project is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded program established to help agricultural workers with disabilities and their families remain active in agriculture. Many factors, including difficult working conditions, hazardous equipment, and out-of-control animals, make agricultural work one of the most dangerous professions in the country. These conditions are compounded in West Virginia, where many farmers are part-time farmers who are also engaged in mining and logging, two of the other most hazardous occupations.

AgrAbility helps farmers and farm families who, because of occupational and personal accidents or illnesses, need to find ways to accommodate their disabilities. AgrAbility staff will assist by making recommendations for safe, affordable modifications to their homes, land, vehicles, and farming equipment. The program will also help farm families locate peer support and funding sources and provide education on farm safety and injury prevention. The West Virginia AgrAbility Project can develop and pursue resources, inform farmers of what is available, and, in some cases, help them design and build assistive devices.

If you know someone who farms with a disability or has a family member with a disability, please call 1-800-841-8436.

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WV AgrAbility Has Made a Valuable New Friend

On Monday, August 27, 2001, West Virginia AgrAbility representatives Jeanne Grimm and Marie Leichliter met with Delas Stuzen and Judy Daft, outreach specialists for the Farm Resource Center in West Virginia, to discuss building a working relationship that would benefit both organizations. All parties involved were pleased with the discussion and look forward to working together in the near future.

The Farm Resource Center provides free outreach mental health crisis intervention services to rural families by culturally sensitive and knowledgeable workers. The services are delivered in the individual's home and are completely confidential. The farm family members work with the outreach specialist to develop a personalized action plan that they each will follow.

The Farm Resource Center is a non-profit agency with twelve volunteers serving as the policy-making board. The Farm Resource Center is currently operating in West Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

The Farm Resource Center was established in 1985 in response to the urgent rural crisis that swept across America. The traditional mental health delivery system was failing rural individuals and there was an urgent need to understand the special needs of rural families who were facing serious tragedy in their lives. Farmers, coal miners, and other rural families were found to be resistive to being served with traditional office-based payment type medical services. The Farm Resource Center took considerable time and effort to understand rural families, discover what they needed most, and plan how to deliver tangible services to them in a practical way, which would be both effective and beneficial.

The Farm Resource Center offers crisis intervention, stress management, information and referral service, community service, and disaster response. For more information about the West Virginia Farm Resource Center contact Delas Stuzan at (304) 449-1085. If there is an emergency, the Farm Resource Center has a toll-free 24-hour crisis line at 1-800-851-4719.

Both AgrAbility and the Resource Center desire to work together as a referral system for farm families in need of assistance and information.

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'Toolbox' for Farmers with Disabilities

Purdue University's Breaking Ground Resource Center developed The Toolbox, a resource manual for farmers with disabilities.

"The third edition recently rolled off the presses, with many new and updated sections," said Paul Jones, manager of the Breaking New Ground Resource Center. The center is Purdue's outreach program for farmers with disabilities. There are about 550 different items featured in The Toolbox.

"You'll find such things as tractor lifts, hitching devices and powered gates," Jones said. "A lot of these are homemade devices. Fifteen or twenty percent are homemade products people submitted."

Topic areas include: Shops and Shop Tools, Trucks and Off-Road Vehicles, Outdoor Mobility, Lawn and Garden, Outdoor Recreation, and Safety and Health.

Commercially available items are listed with supplier names and phone numbers.

More than a half million farmers and other agricultural workers in the United States have physical disabilities that make it difficult to perform routine farm tasks. And each year, approximately 10,000 new cases of debilitating injuries or illnesses occur.

"In the back of The Toolbox, we've put case studies of individuals," Jones said. "A lot of them have the spirit that they're not going to be beat. They have the attitude that if they can't do some-thing one way, they'll find another."

A Toolbox preview can be downloaded at: pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/ABE/Extension/BGN/toolboxpreview.pdf
(Please note that this PDF file requires Adobe Reader which you can download at http://www.adobe.com)

The Toolbox sells for $80, including shipping and handling, and can be ordered by calling 1-800-825-4264.

The AgrAbility Project has three copies of the Toolbox that can be loaned for short periods of time. Please call 1-800-841-8436 or e-mail assist@neumedia.net if you want to borrow a copy.

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How the WV AgrAbility Project Can Help You

Has an accident either on or off the farm, or a chronic health condition made it difficult for you to do your daily chores? The West Virginia AgrAbility Project is part of a national information network for farmers, farm workers and farm family members. the program is designed to help those who experience:

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Ten Things Kids Want To Know About Farming

A new 22-minute educational videotape for Grades 4-6 takes students on a series of field trips to farm and ranch locations throughout the United States, offering them a first-hand view of what happens on farms to produce the food and cloting they use every day.

Farmers are shhown using tractors and irrigation systems, harvesting crops and trees, milking cows, and herding sheep. The farmers answer questions that kids commonly ask about agriculture, farmers and ranchers, and share their experiences of making a living off the land.

Laurie Wink, director of agricultural education for the Foundation of Agriculture, said, "We often hear that kids today don't know anything about farming, so we decided to find out exactly what kids would ask a farmer if they had an opportunity to talk to one."

Ten Things Kids Want To Know About Farming is available for $18.50 for a single video and $15 each for 2 or more videos. Orders may be placed by phone at 847-685-8663, or by e-mail at marys@fb.org

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Protein Saves Bones in Elders

A new study suggests that protein intake may be important in reducing bone loss in elders. The study was conducted by researchers with the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged, Research and Training Institute; Boston University; and the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, all in Boston, Mass. The USDA center is funded by the department's chief scientific research agency, the Agricultural Research Service.

With data from 615 participants in the Framingham, Massachusetts Osteoporosis Study, the researhers examined the relationship between protein intakes in 1988-89 and changes in bone mineral density four years later. They accounted for all factors known to increase risk of bone loss.

Participants who reported the lowest daily protein intakes - roughly equivalent to half a chicken breast - had lost significantly more bone in the hip and spine four years later than those with the highest intakes - equivalent to about nine ounces of steak and a cup of tuna salad.

The group with the next lowest intake - equivalent to about two cups of cottage cheese - also lost significantly more bone than the highest-intake group, but only at the hip. People can search the USDA food composition tables for the protein content of more than 6,000 foods at: www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl

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