Minnesota Agencies

The Farm Safety Working Group (FSWG) is an informal collaboration between state agencies, higher education institutions, agriculture membership organizations, farm safety advocates, private sector companies, and labor and safety organizations focused on improving safety in agriculture.

The Farm Safety Working Group (FSWG) grew out of farm safety conversations during the 2015 Legislative session and met as a group for the first time in June of 2015. The FSWG’s purpose is to provide a forum to discuss safety issues in agriculture, connect groups and organizations who are working on farm safety, and organize a collective effort to improve agricultural safety.

In October 2015, the Star Tribune published a four-part series, Tragic Harvest, which reported on the increasing rate of farm deaths in the Midwest and explored their causes.

The 2016 Minnesota Legislature asked the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to analyze the range of safety challenges presented in the operation of a farm, in consultation with organizations in Minnesota that address issues of farm safety, and report the findings to the legislative committees with jurisdiction over agricultural policy (Laws of MN 2016, Ch 184, Sec 13).

The 2017 report below includes a section on: Farm Safety Legislation and Reports in Minnesota. It includes a historical timeline provides further context for the farm safety challenges, efforts, and recommendations presented in this report.