The mission of Kent County Farm Bureau is to proactively secure the future of agriculture through promotion, community enhancement, and public education. This work takes a lot of different forms--meetings, conferences, policy development--but one of the most gratifying is when we get to support the work of other organizations that value farmers and agricultural workers.
At our County Annual meeting in September, we took donations for AgrAbility, a program of Easterseals MORC that is dedicated to helping farmers adapt to disability, illness, and aging so they can keep doing the work they love.
Ned Stoller has worked with AgrAbility since he was studying agriculture at Purdue University in the late-1990s, continuing after moving to Michigan to help run a family dairy farm. He no longer dairies, but produces maple syrup. They just had a record year, producing 220 gallons of maple syrup (which required around 10,000 gallons of sap!). He's a Michigan Farm Bureau member, his son maintains 200 laying hens, and his daughter manages a small dairy herd, so the whole family is invested in agriculture.
At this time of year, he says, "All the guys with bad hips and knees want to get on their combine." They could buy a ready-made lift for over $10,000, but if they can stand but not climb, they could use the design Stoller has developed and make one themselves for around $1,200, or have a local welding shop build for closer to $4,000. Stoller's work has two main parts. He visits farms to get a sense for how the farmer is able to move, what work the farmer needs to do, and what the existing infrastructure is. He calls this, "seeing what makes the farmer tick." Then he gets down to researching the best adaptations to address each farmer's needs. As with the combine lift, even when there is a ready-made solution, he sometimes designs an alternative to give the farmer options.
Stoller uses the acronym SMILE when talking with farmers about the issues they'll negotiate together:
- What are the safety concerns with how they're current working?
- Will an accommodation help the farm bring in more money?
- How can we increase the farmer's independence?
- What does the farmer like to do?
- What is the expense of accommodating?
This can include very frank conversations about the connection between safety, money, and expense. For example, if the accommodation solves a serious safety issue, but seems too expensive, Stoller might ask the farmer to compare that expense to the cost of winding up in the hospital after an accident and the resulting lost income.
But farmers rarely bear that expense alone. Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS) provides assistance, as do other organizations like the Farmer Veteran Coalition. AgrAbility itself is able to provide help for those who don't qualify for MRS: this is what the Kent County Farm Bureau $500 donation will go to.
Denise Durkee, Director of Development and Community Relations for Easterseals MORC West Michigan, is grateful for the support. AgrAbility is one of her favorite things to talk about: "People know about Easterseals MORC, but they don't think about farmers needing disability assistance. I'm so glad we can offer it."
If you know, or if you are, a farmer who is ready to explore accommodations to help them keep doing the work they love, contact us at the Kent County Farm Bureau office and we'll put you in touch with Ned ([email protected], 616-784-1092).