ROWAN COUNTY – On a hot and humid July day, Suzanne Ramsey was out on her Gator™ utility vehicle surveying the vegetables, berries and flowers on her farm near Mooresville in Rowan County.
Later in the day, her voice cracking with emotion, she acknowledged that she couldn’t work her farm without the aid of the Gator and that the Gator and other assistive devices were made possible through her connection to the NC AgrAbility Partnership.
“I am so much more independent and can do things that I couldn’t do before,” said Ramsey. “It opened up the world for me.”
Ramsey suffered severe injuries when her leg was crushed by a forklift years ago. She also experienced paralysis after a bout with a virus that makes one side of her body weaker and affects her balance. She had resigned herself to pushing through the pain, fatigue and balance challenges for as long as possible. Then in 2019, she heard about the NC AgrAbility program through a display at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference. She contacted Beatriz (Betty) Rodriguez, project director of the NC AgrAbility Partnership with Cooperative Extension at N.C A&T.
“Without AgrAbility, I would have been forced to stop farming,” said Ramsey, who sells to local restaurants and the public through a farm stand. “Now I can take people out and show them the farm, and that’s a real pick-me-up. If you can give people healthy food and a little shot of love, what can be better?”
AgrAbility was launched in 1991 by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The program aims to improve the quality of life for farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers with disabilities by recommending assistive technologies, modifications to work environments, and accommodations. It consists of a national AgrAbility project and state and regional projects that all work in partnership with land-grant institutions, nonprofit organizations, and other programs that serve people with disabilities.
Recent research by USDA’s Economic Research Service estimated that about 19% of U.S. farmers (395,000 people) and 9% of U.S. farmworkers (134,000 people) had a disability at some point between 2008 and 2016. Disabilities can be physical, cognitive, related to hearing or vision problems, or to inabilities to perform self-care or independent living functions. As farmers grow older, disabilities become more common. Sometimes, they force farmers to give up their livelihoods and farming lifestyles.
After Ramsey’s inquiry, NC AgrAbility and its partners at the NC Assistive Technology Program (NCATP) visited Ramsey’s farm to evaluate her needs and recommend assistive technologies. To help her find resources to pay for the recommended technologies, NC AgrAbility connected Ramsey to the NC AgVentures grant program, which helped pay for a Gator that was easy for her to enter and exit and came equipped with an electric lift to assist with heavy lifting. With assistance from NCATP and an NC AgrAbility cost-share program made available through Carolina Farm Credit, she acquired other recommended tools.
“I was embarrassed to have to ask for help,” said Ramsey. “I felt like less of a person to be honest. I thought there were other people who needed the help more than me.”
She credits Rodriguez with helping her look at things differently and use the NC AgrAbility network of organizations to find strategies to deal with her physical limitations. She talked to a nurse from the NC Agromedicine Institute and other experts, learned about ergonomic hand tools and shovels, and spent nearly a year looking for a Gator that fit her needs.
“Betty called me, and she literally changed my life,” said Ramsey. “She didn’t generalize my problems; she listened carefully to my specific situation. I no longer felt isolated, and that was a huge thing.”
Assistive technologies help a fifth-generation farmer
About 20 miles east of Ramsey’s farm in Rowan County, Chris Morgan and his sister Stephanie Morgan Frisbee raise Charolais beef cattle and produce hay, straw, corn and grain on their Century Farm near China Grove. The pair are fifth-generation farmers, but in 2014, Chris injured his right hand and wrist while working as a diesel mechanic. Afterward, he struggled with his farm workload and realized that he could no longer perform some tasks. In 2017 he learned about NC AgrAbility, and after an onsite visit to assess his needs, he was referred to the NCATP for an assistive technology evaluation and to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services for financial assistance. The financial support helped him modify his farming practices and structures to give him increased accessibility to his cattle while feeding them.
“When I became disabled there were things that I could no longer do on the farm,” said Morgan. “AgrAbility has helped me to acquire equipment and modify existing equipment so that I am able to keep farming and do it safely. The resources that AgrAbility provides can help keep farmers farming when they might otherwise be unable to farm.”
According to Rodriguez, Morgan’s and Ramsey’s stories are common in a profession where the population is aging and the work required is physically strenuous. She said that anyone in the state engaged in production agriculture who is limited by any type of physical, mental, or health-related disability can seek out NC AgrAbility services.
“NC AgrAbility is all about collaboration between organizations, institutions, and programs,” said Rodriguez. “We focus on increasing the networking capacity between organizations so we can help farmers with disabilities. We follow the principle that by working together, we are stronger.”
NC AgrAbility is a project of the NC Agromedicine Institute and is funded by N.C. A&T State University. Partners include DisAbility Partners and NCATP, and other collaborators include the NC Farmworker Health Program, the NC Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T and North Carolina State University, and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living.
Thanks to the program, farmers like Ramsey and Morgan can keep doing what they love and even branch out. For example, the Ramseys, who bought their property 18 years ago when it was over-farmed and incapable of supporting either plant or animal life, can pursue their passions of providing their community with organic food, offering educational farm tours, and producing their own organic root beer called Uncle Scott’s All Natural Root Beer.
