of America

A Proclamation

Agriculture has always been one of our most important industries. Although our ancestors were bound to the land in order to survive, the remarkable advances of science and technology have overcome most limitations that dictated scarcity. American agriculture has emerged as a marvel of efficiency and productivity. Now, fewer than five percent of our people are able to supply an abundance of high-quality but low-cost food, freeing most others for the task of providing the incredible array of goods and services we enjoy.

Unfortunately, the accident rate for people engaged in agriculture is unacceptably high. Many thousands of farm and ranch residents and workers suffer disabling, crippling, or fatal injuries each year. This unhappy toll is further compounded by many job-related illnesses. The direct economic costs of these problems exceed $5 billion annually, and there is no way to measure the pain, despair and family disruption that also result.

This regrettable situation need not continue. The waste of life, limb, property and financial resources can be sharply reduced if rural people take a decisive stand for better safety and health. Accidents and job-related illnesses can be averted by safe and proper methods, control of hazards, and use of protective equipment when appropriate. In addition, guidance in safety and health is readily available to all from the Extension Service, safety councils, volunteer safety leaders and the manufacturers of the products we use.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of September 16 through September 22, 1984, as National Farm Safety Week. I urge every man and woman engaged in farming and ranching to make basic safety a priority in every activity and task -- on the job, in the home and on the highway. I also urge those who serve and supply farmers and ranchers to encourage and support personal and community safety and health efforts in every possible way.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eighth.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:46 p.m., May 24, 1984]