![]() When the owner fended off the bull and picked up Alvarez, his face was covered in blood. "I went flying against the metal bars, face down" Alvarez recalled in Spanish. Lazaro Alvarez, 39, was working in a barn at Flanagan Farms in Chenango County last September when a bull charged toward him, slamming Alvarez against metal bars that encircle the cows' sleeping area. But OSHA regulations do not allow the agency to inspect many farms due to their small size, and it hasn't sought additional authority from Congress to expand its reach. OSHA, which oversees workplace safety, is scheduled to begin a new program in July to provide more oversight on New York dairies. "You know when you do something every day you have a tendency to get lax with it, and unfortunately we have a business that is very dangerous, that we are involved with 24/7," Brayman said. Brayman and her family own a farm in Onondaga County and said some of the milk they produce is sold to Chobani. "I think a lot of accidents happen that could be prevented," said Kimberly Brayman, whose father, Richard Fesko, 59, died in a manure pit accident in 2011. In the last two years, there have been at least five more deaths on New York's dairy farms, according to published reports, police records and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Chuck Schumer, a staunch supporter of the New York's yogurt industry, has said that in the Capital Region alone, dairy farmers needed to increase production by nearly 200 million pounds per year to keep up with demand.īut over a six-year period, from 2007 to 2012, New York had 34 deaths on dairy farms, while there were far fewer fatalities during that period in other milk-producing states such as California and Idaho. ![]() Andrew Cuomo announced that $21 million would be available for dairy farmers to expand their operations to meet the yogurt industry's increased demand. ![]() Often touted as the "Yogurt Capital" of the nation, New York ranks third in milk production behind California and Wisconsin, and slightly ahead of Idaho. Since then, several yogurt companies have opened plants in the state, including Fage, Siggi's, Muller Quaker Dairy, and Alpina. Public records indicate that more than three dozen people have died on state dairy farms since 2007, the year that Chobani first started selling cups of its popular yogurt from its plant in South Edmeston, Otsego County. ![]() New York State Fatality Rates per 100,000 workersĪgriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting: 35.8 Agricultural deaths in New York 2007-2012Ĭrop production (includes vegetable, fruit, and hay farming) : 27ĭairy deaths 2007-2012 in top milk-producing states ![]()
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