Gender harassment was reported by 30% of female crew members, of which 9% also reported unwanted sexual attention and 1% reported sexual coercion. The relative prevalence of these SH categories mirrored the pattern in prior California studies, although the rates of workers reporting SH in our study were considerably lower than the rates reported in those studies . This may be explained by regional and crop-specific differences. For example, working conditions in Napa vineyards are generally considered better than those in other agricultural sectors, with workers offered above average wages and benefits . Additionally, we considered harassment only at a worker’s current company, not throughout the worker’s overall agricultural or working career, which could have resulted in a lower reporting rate compared to previous studies. The low rates of unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion in our study were far lower than those found in other studies. Such low rates reflect well on the Napa industry, but they may also, despite the anonymity of responses, indicate a reluctance among women to admit severe harassment when participating alongside co-workers and in a study coordinated as we did this one. The small number of women reporting unwanted sexual attention or sexual coercion meant we were not able to consider an analysis of the relationship between the severity of SH with the other variables measured. Instead, we focused on two types of group comparison based on the presence or absence of SH: women reporting any type of harassment versus women reporting no harassment, and crews where SH was reported versus crews where SH was absent . We analyzed average scores or counts except for crew gender ratio, SH awareness training and relatives in crew. For these three variables, we classified female participants into additional groups based on the percentage of females in a crew, the percentage of crew members that were SH-trained and the presence or absence of relatives in a crew. Thus, female participants were assigned either to a low-female group or a high-female group and either to a low-SH-trained group or to a high-SH-trained group , using a median split.
Descriptive data for harassed and non-harassed female participants show that harassed women in our study differed on two antecedent variables. As in other industries ,what is a vertical farm harassed women were significantly younger than non-harassed women; women under 40 years of age accounted for two-thirds of reported harassment cases in our study. Second, 89% of women reporting the more severe categories of harassment were seasonal employees. More female seasonal workers than permanent workers reported gender harassment, although this relationship was not statistically significant . Harassed and non-harassed women did not differ significantly in the presence of relatives on their crews, the duration of their employment, crew size, crew gender ratio or the number of members in their crew that had received SH awareness training . Harassed women had significantly higher turnover intentions and lower overall job satisfaction compared to non-harassed women, supporting prior research on the negative impact of SH on morale and worker productivity. We compared descriptive data for SH+ and SH− crews on hostile sexism and male work outcomes. Mean scores for hostile sexism were significantly higher in SH+ crews compared to mean scores in SH− crews, supporting the theory that sexist attitudes contribute to a climate of SH tolerance . This complemented our finding of a higher incidence of gender harassment over other types of SH. The hostile sexism questionnaire can thus be considered an attitudinal measure of the behavioral gender harassment component of the SEQ, as hostile sexist attitudes appeared to be enacted as behavioral harassment towards women workers. Turnover intentions for male members of SH+ were significantly higher and job satisfaction was lower than they were for males in SH− crews. We could not determine whether dissatisfied male workers were more likely to perpetrate SH or if witnessing SH adversely affected male workers; however, the latter has previously been concluded in other research .
We identified several variables associated with the presence of SH in agricultural work crews, and we demonstrated that SH is associated with a decline in work outcomes. The type of design we employed in this study cannot verify causation between variables, only association. However, these statistical associations, together with consideration of the literature on SH in other industries, provides grounds for healthy speculation as to how agricultural companies might address SH among their workers.The oldest woman reporting SH was 47; most harassed women in this sample were 40 years or younger. Despite the lack of statistical differences in SH incidence between seasonal and permanent female workers, the severe forms of SH were overwhelmingly reported by seasonal workers. While recognizing that all workers are at risk of SH, companies should therefore be especially vigilant of the risk to young and seasonal female workers.Changing the structure of work crews is unlikely to reduce SH. In our study, harassed women worked in crews that were large and small, with or without relatives, and with considerable variation in gender ratio. Harassed women were just as likely to be working on crews with a high percentage of females as on crews with a low percentage of females . This was unexpected, as meta-analyses have demonstrated gender ratios to be a significant predictor of SH . However, the gender ratio effect may be small, and as SH occurs in a range of organizational settings , the characteristics of SH perpetrators may be more important. For example, perpetrators in male dominated workplaces tend to be co-workers, whereas perpetrators in female-dominated workplaces are more likely to be supervisors . The questionnaire we used in our study did not ask women about the perpetrators, but the unimportance of crew gender ratio indicates the possibility that SH may have originated not only from inside the crews but from outside, such as from supervisors or other company employees. Our presumption that the crew level is the most relevant company unit for SH was too optimistic. We often observed multiple crews working in the same vineyard, and they often mixed during work breaks; SH could therefore have originated from other crews, especially as the SH reported in our study was primarily verbal and gestural in nature.
Crew membership was also probably more fluid than our study design conceived. Women were asked about SH only during their current employment, but these women did not necessarily work continually in the same crew configuration. If gender ratio is an important antecedent of SH in agriculture, we predict it will be at the level of the company rather than at the level of the work team.Our results, as supported by the literature , indicate that an improvement in organizational climate is a more effective method for tackling SH than a restructuring of work crews. The hostile sexist attitude of both men and women in a crew was significantly associated with the presence of SH. Companies can expect to reduce SH by changing or neutralizing these attitudes. However, shifting these attitudes may be difficult to accomplish, as indicated by our finding that previous SH awareness training was not related to a decrease in reported SH. Similar poor efficacy of SH awareness training has been reported in prior research , suggesting that improvements are needed to the structure and administration of awareness training for agricultural workers. Unless these changes are made, other organizational climate variables, such as the internal management of complaints and the overall social climate of a company , are more likely to be effective in reducing SH. There is still value in conducting training, as it has been shown to make women more likely to report SH and it makes workers more aware of what is acceptable behavior . Since we did not collect details on which training programs the workers received, we cannot comment on the efficacy of one training program over another. Harassed females reported lower job satisfaction and higher intention to quit their jobs, illustrating that SH is likely resulting in companies losing female workers and experiencing other negative effects associated with poor worker satisfaction. The same reduced outcomes were reported by male workers in crews where harassment was occurring, suggesting that SH may be impacting not only the targets but also the co-workers. Dissatisfaction among men as a result of SH thus also has the potential to negatively affect company performance. The current study demonstrated that workplace sexual harassment of female vineyard workers affects the well being and retention of all workers in an agricultural sector where there is a paucity of quantitative data on the issue. Furthermore, this study illustrated that female workers in entry positions to the industry are most at risk of SH, illustrating that SH is a barrier for women seeking to enter the agricultural workforce. Thus, SH has the potential to significantly affect the stability of the labor pool in a time of labor shortage and to incur economic costs not only for workers but also for agricultural organizations seeking to train and retain stable work crews. Incidence of SH in our study was lower than that previously reported for farm workers, but our results should be treated with some caution; there may have been some under reporting due to our method of data collection and our relatively small sample size. This study also measured SH in one region and one crop only, and incidence rates may not generalize to other agricultural regions and sectors. Workplace policies and practices that reduce or eliminate hostile sexist attitudes appear to have the most promise for reducing SH in agriculture. However,vertical strawberries vertical system accomplishing these goals with limited resources and within a company’s traditional organizational structure may be challenging.
Future studies may seek to consider in more detail how organizational climate can be effectively addressed in the agricultural sector, the effectiveness of different SH awareness programs and the characteristics of perpetrators of SH towards women. In response to a shift toward specialization and mechanization during the 20th century, there has been momentum on the part of a vocal contingent of consumers, producers, researchers, and policy makers who call for a transition toward a new model of agriculture. This model employs fewer synthetic inputs, incorporates practices which enhance biodiversity and environmental services at local, regional, and global scales, and takes into account the social implications of production practices, market dynamics, and product mixes. Within this vision, diversified farming systems have emerged as a model that incorporates functional biodiversity at multiple temporal and spatial scales to maintain ecosystem services critical to agricultural production. This essay’s aim is to provide an economists’ perspective on the factors which make diversified farming systems economically attractive, or not-so-attractive, to farmers, and to discuss the potential for and roadblocks to widespread adoption. The essay focuses on how a range of existing and emerging factors drive profitability and adoption of DFS, and suggests that, in order for DFS to thrive, a number of structural changes are needed. These include: 1) public and private investment in the development of low-cost, practical technologies that reduce the costs of production in DFS, 2) support for and coordination of evolving markets for ecosystem services and products from DFS and 3) the elimination of subsidies and crop insurance programs that perpetuate the unsustainable production of staple crops. This work suggests that subsidies and funding be directed, instead, toward points 1) and 2), as well as toward incentives for consumption of nutritious food. Each year, more than 50,000 people in the U.S. die from hospital-acquired bacterial infections, millions experience episodes of food borne illness, and reported cases of “superbugs” such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusand vancomyc in-resistant enterococci are on the rise. For those who acquire a resistant infection in their food, in their community, or in a hospital, resistance is associated with a longer duration of treatment, the use of more potent antibiotics, and longer hospital stays. This, in turn, means increased health care costs and costs to society due to antibiotic-resistant infections. Antibiotic resistance is contributing to the scope and severity of this health care crisis, and at least some of the responsibility for antibiotic resistance sits on the shoulders of industrial livestock production. In livestock operations, low or sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics are used to promote growth, in addition to their use to prevent and control disease. Today, more antibiotics are used in livestock production and the production of milk and eggs than in humans. While the use of sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics is regulated less stringently in the United States than in the European Union, there is movement toward and potential for such regulation.