You’ve dreamed of becoming a farmer, growing food not just for yourself but for your greater community. You yearn to work with the soil, and are prepared for a life of physical toil, intellectual challenges, and uncertain finances. All that’s left is to trade in your suit and tie for sturdy boots and a dilapidated hat.

If you think farm safety is someone else’s problem, you’re right. It was Bill’s and Angie’s problems when the tractors they were driving crushed them. It was Roger’s problem when he got wrapped around a PTO shaft, and it was my problem when I leapt over a fence barely ahead of an angry sow.