Kids FarmSafe Week promotes healthy and safe communities

Over the last 15 years, there has been an average of 70 fatalities on Canadian farms each year.

With most Canadian farms operated by farm families, the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) and BASF Canada Agricultural Solutions (BASF) recognize that even one on-farm death is too many.

To promote safety on farms, the first annual Kids FarmSafe Week will be held from May 13 to 19.

Leta LaRush, Vice President, Business Management at BASF said CASA plays an essential role in the industry, providing Canadian farmers and their families with the information and resources needed to make farms safer places to live, work and play.

“Fostering a safety-first mindset is incredibly important to all of us at BASF and we know this is a shared value within the agricultural community,” Rush said. “We’re delighted to be the presenting sponsor of this inaugural national week focusing on increasing awareness and access to child-specific farm safety resources.”

In February 2023, CASA and Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR) published a report detailing agriculture-related fatalities. The report found that between 1990 and 2020, 435 children were lost to these incidents. Seeding and harvest are particularly demanding times on the farm and have been shown to have heightened risk for children, however, the demand for safety awareness and advocacy is needed year-round.

BASF developed the Safety Scouts program in 2021 to introduce the importance of a safety-first mindset on the farm. The program provides kits to farm families including adjustable child-sized safety vests, activity sheets, and more, and are given to North American farm families free of charge.

Available through CASA’s FarmSafe Kids site are two different kits: the BASF Safety Scout kits, designed for children aged three to six, and the BASF Safety Captain kits, designed for ages seven and up.