Green funerals are cheaper, easier on the planet and increasingly an end-of-life option

Shrouded body prepared for green burial.
(Larkspur Conservation photo)

Americans may not be able to choose how and when they die, but they can make arrangements for what happens to their body afterward. For many people, the challenges involved in creating and paying for interment have led them away from traditional funeral preparations such as embalming, a casket and a plot of land. "More Americans are choosing burials in which everything is biodegradable," reports Paula Span of The New York Times.

Although a consumer survey conducted by the National Funeral Directors Association "found that fewer than 10% of respondents would prefer a green burial (compared to 43% favoring cremation and 24% opting for conventional burial), more than 60% said they would be interested in exploring green and natural alternatives," Span writes.

While some survey participants wanted to be buried naturally because it's environmentally friendly, "many survey participants attributed their interest in green burial to its lower cost," Span explains. "The median price of a funeral with burial in 2023 was about $10,000, not including the cemetery plot or a monument." Cremation requires fossil fuels and costs roughly $6,300.

Green burial expenses do depend on location, but they are generally cheaper than traditional burial and cremation costs. Span reports, "About 40 miles outside Nashville, a green burial at Larkspur Conservation costs $4,000, including the gravesite and just about everything else, except, if the family wants one, a flat, engraved native stone."

As one might expect, a green funeral is held in the woods where family and friends "tend to walk the trail to the burial site wearing denim and hiking boots, not black suits," Span adds. In some cases, mourners help lower the body into the ground and help shovel dirt over the grave. 

John Christian Phifer, Larkspur’s founder, gave Span a list of green funeral benefits: "No chemical embalming, no steel casket, no concrete vault. . . . It’s what keeps forests from becoming subdivisions."

Measles is continuing to spread through unvaccinated communities, confirming experts' fears

Measles has no direct cure and
can spread easily.
(Photo by Kristine Wook, Unsplash)

The number of confirmed measles cases in the United States so far this year has reached 712, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The resurgence of the virus is cause for concern as “it is preventable … and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000,” according to Devi Shastri in an article for the Associated Press.

Measles is a viral infection that has no direct treatment. The illness can be indicated by a fever, runny nose, cough, watery eyes and a rash.

While Texas has the majority of cases at 505, there have been reports of measles in 25 states, according to the CDC.

“The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year,” wrote Shastri.

According to Shastri's report, cases spread easily in communities with low vaccination rates and that the best way to avoid measles is to get vaccinated.

Even though the disease doesn’t have a direct cure, the article explains that most children do recover. However, “infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.”

So far, three people have died from measles this year, according to the CDC.

Another food recall? U.S. food supply diversification created 'many more points' where food can be contaminated.

The listeria outbreak in Boar's Head meat caused 10 deaths
and sickened at least 61 people this year. (Boar's Head photo)

In the past six months, the number of reported food-borne illness outbreaks and food recalls in the United States has started to feel like a daily occurrence. And as the list of tainted foods grows from deli meat to onions to ground beef, many American consumers are wondering which foods are safe. Emily Schmall of The New York Times reports on "what the data on food safety actually shows."

A more in-depth look at U.S. food system data reveals a complex system with some documented safety improvements and plenty of room for improvement. Schmall explains, "By some measures, the food supply has become safer in recent years: We now have better testing systems that make it possible to detect contaminated food sooner and recall it faster, which means that outbreaks are now often smaller. It’s also easier to detect foodborne illnesses and link them to specific outbreaks. . . . Still, there has been less progress than experts had hoped to see by now."

Part of the country's food safety dilemma comes from the system's complexity and the sheer number of countries and suppliers involved. Schmall reports, "More products and ingredients are now being imported, and food is more frequently grown, manufactured, packed, and distributed by separate companies. A longer and less integrated supply chain means there are many more points at which the food can be contaminated."

The American public isn't wrong; recalls have increased. In fact, "recalls have nearly doubled between 2012 and 2024, though the Food and Drug Administration lumps food and cosmetic recalls together," Schmall writes. "Some of this increase may be because of better testing. Not all recalls involve pathogens, either." 

While the constant barrage of food recalls has left many Americans thinking U.S. regulators cannot ensure that the food supply is safe, the FDA has funding constraints that limit its ability to inspect more foreign food facilities. "The FDA physically inspects less than 1% of food imports," Schmall explains. "That gap in oversight was illuminated last year when applesauce pouches that contained lead-tainted cinnamon sourced from Ecuador sickened hundreds of children across the United States."

Susan Mayne, who served as the FDA's director of food safety during the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, told Schmal, "The FDA functions as a food safety cop on the beat. But the ultimate responsibility for making things safer really comes from the food industry.”

A glimmer of hope for U.S. overdose deaths: They are at their lowest levels since 2020, but officials warn to press on

A snapshot of overdose deaths from January 2015 to January 2024
(CDC graph, based on data available for analysis)

The U.S. opioid epidemic isn't over, but national totals for overdose deaths have declined for 12 months in a row, with current numbers "slowed to the lowest levels since 2020," reports Alexander Tin of CBS News. The decrease in deaths is attributed to several factors; however, experts warn that now is a time to "double down" on current efforts and keep looking for new ways to prevent drug abuse from starting.

American overdose deaths peaked in 2023, but the latest trend offers hope and some reassurance that current treatments are saving lives. "Around 70,655 deaths linked to opioids like heroin and fentanyl were reported for the year ending June 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates, falling 18% from the same time in 2023," Tin writes. "Almost all states, except for a handful in the West from Alaska through Nevada, are now seeing a significant decrease in overdose death rates."

In Appalachian states, such as West Virginia, where opioid addiction among residents was disproportionately high, overdose deaths have steadily declined with the rest of the nation. Emily Rice of West Virginia Public Radio reports, "A Sept. 1 analysis of provisional overdose death rate data from the CDC shows a rapid decrease in the number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. and this time West Virginia appears to be keeping pace."

Even with good news, the current rates remain grim. Dr. Allison Arwady, head of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, told Tin, "We are encouraged by this data, but boy, it is time to double down on the things that we know are working. It is not a time to pull back, and I feel very strongly, and our data shows, that the threat continues to evolve." Brian Mann of NPR reports, "Roughly 100,000 deaths are still occurring per year. . .fentanyl, methamphetamines, xylazine and other synthetic chemicals are more poisonous than ever."

But the roughly 10.6 percent decline in overdose fatalities still speaks to some success. Tin writes, "Arwady pointed to a long list of factors that officials hope are contributing to the decline, ranging from broader availability of the overdose-reversing spray naloxone, also known as Narcan, to efforts to ease gaps in access to medications that can treat opioid use disorder."

Youth education programs may be contributing to the decline. Tin explains, "Trends in what health officials call 'primary prevention' have also improved in recent years — meaning fewer people using the drugs to begin with. As an example, Arwady cited CDC surveys showing a clear decline in high school students reporting that they have tried illegal drugs."

Cadaver dogs and their handlers comb through piles of debris to find people lost during Hurricane Helene

Cadaver dog handlers are always looking for ways to keep their dogs
interested during a long search. (FEMA photo via NC Health News)

Hurricane Helene's torrential rains and flooding across western North Carolina didn't just decimate homes and businesses, it swept people away, leaving many communities still searching through rubble for lost loved ones. To help find the missing, cadaver dogs and their handlers are painstakingly working through debris and high waters.

"Highly trained dogs have played a crucial role in finding victims’ remains; one canine-assisted search team from Guilford County recovered 20 bodies in the immediate aftermath of the storm," reports Jaymie Baxley of NC Health News. "These specialist canines and their handlers are likely to find more casualties in the weeks to come, according to cadaver dog expert Cat Warren." Baxley spoke with Warren about the added challenges cadaver dogs and handlers face after natural disasters. Their edited Q&A is below.

Baxley: What are some of the unique challenges involved in training a dog to detect human remains — especially in disaster scenarios like hurricanes?
Cat Warren: Disaster work adds bunches of challenges on top of just finding the scent of human remains. It takes absolute experience for the dogs and handlers to work in these situations.. . . In a tragedy like this, you also have so much competing odor. . . . Many times, the dogs will work for hours and hours without finding anything.

Baxley: How do factors like flooding, mudslides or dense forests affect the ability of dogs to detect remains after events like hurricanes?
Cat Warren: But in these cases, the dog may not be able to get close enough or the scent is so fractured that the dog is somewhat uncertain. That’s when the handler is going to tell people who are flanking them, 'Look, the dog showed real interest here.' The dog may not give his final indication because that body or that scent is underneath a pile of debris, so it’s then up to the searchers to go in and search that pile of debris.

Baxley: How would you describe a typical search operation involving cadaver dogs in disaster-hit areas? Is there a timeline for the work?
Cat Warren: It’s grim, but the timeline for this is going to be months because there’s such a huge area to search.. . . Officials are still gathering accounts of where people went missing, and we have a homeless population in Asheville that is probably very much still unaccounted for. 

Baxley: What improvements or advancements have you seen in cadaver dog training that could enhance future search and recovery efforts?
Cat Warren: Generally, training over the past 20 years or so has improved at the highest levels because people have a greater understanding of how positive reinforcement and motivation can be used to train dogs in a really disciplined way. . . . One of the things that handlers are doing all the time is figuring out how to keep these dogs motivated over long search periods.

For handlers, some of the feelings may come afterward. These guys are doing really, really hard work. It is exhausting, and it takes a real physical and emotional toll. . . .

Opinion: Understanding how fentanyl 'saturated the U.S. drug supply' could help address the addiction crisis

Naloxone can prevent overdose deaths, but it's expensive.
(Adobe Stock photo)

The current U.S. opioid crisis started with painkiller prescriptions in the early 2000s, but once medical providers started nixing those medicines, heroin's popularity surged, and then fentanyl and its "tsunami" of death entered the market, reports Maia Szalavitz of The New York Times. "Understanding how fentanyl saturated the drug supply, moving from the East Coast of the U.S. to the West, is critical to ending the worst drug crisis in American history."

Drug cartels' greed drove the creation and use of fentanyl. "By 2013, cartels had realized that they could slash their labor, manufacturing and transit costs by replacing heroin derived from farm-grown opium with a powder made in a lab — fentanyl," Szalavitz writes. "Before 2018, 80% of all deaths associated with fentanyl occurred east of the Mississippi. . . . Since 2021, at least two-thirds of America’s 100,000 annual overdose deaths involved a synthetic opioid like fentanyl."

While heroin was considered a more urban drug, "increased opioid prescriptions — followed by sharp reductions — resulted in new heroin users in rural areas," Szalavitz explains. "Illegally manufactured fentanyl began appearing in both urban and rural drug markets. . . . Rural West Virginia and other Appalachian regions were the center of the earliest prescription opioid wave of the crisis, which led to the establishment of new heroin markets in places facing job loss."

Combating opioid addiction and overdose deaths liked to fentanyl is tough because the drug's supply chain and use is now deeply embedded across the country. The drug is cheap to make and buy, and provides an exceedingly potent high for the user. "So, what can be done? The answer is to focus on the drivers of demand, not supply. This means addressing the roots of addiction and treating it compassionately," Szalavitz writes. "We have a great generic opioid overdose antidote, naloxone. . . . And two medications — methadone and buprenorphine — have proved to cut the risk of death among people with opioid addictions by 50% or more when used long-term."

Szalavitz adds that people often start doing drugs because their lives feel hopeless. "Addiction is most often an attempt to escape despair. The condition itself is defined by compulsive drug use despite negative consequences, which is why threats of punishment or even death rarely yield recovery. . . . It’s not coincidental that the exponential rise in overdose deaths has occurred in tandem with a profound increase in income inequality."

American suicide rates continue to climb, with some rural states seeing double the number of deaths. Why?

When it comes to suicide prevention, what works where
hasn't been found. (Photo by A. Nath, Unsplash)

After decades of suicide prevention funding and plan roll-outs, the number of self-inflicted deaths in the United States has only increased, with some rural states shouldering double the number of deaths compared to their urban counterparts, reports Cheryl Platzman Weinstock of KFF Health News.

"From 2001 through 2021 suicide rates increased most years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Provisional data for 2022, the most recent numbers available, shows deaths by suicide grew an additional 3% over the previous year. CDC officials project the final number of suicides in 2022 will be higher," Weinstock adds. "Suicide rates in rural states such as Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming have been about double those in urban areas."

Meanwhile, mental health experts maintain that the ideas and educational programs aren't to blame for the results. Instead, they say, "the policies simply aren’t being funded, adopted, and used," Weinstock reports. "That slow uptake was compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic, which had a broad, negative impact on mental health. National experts and government officials agree the strategies simply haven’t been embraced widely."

How suicide data is determined and reported isn't uniform yet either. "Without accurate statistics, researchers can’t figure out who dies most often by suicide, what prevention strategies are working, and where prevention money is needed most," Weinstock writes. Without more clarity, deciding on the best preventative practices can become impossible. Interventions that work in sparsely populated Wyoming, may not work in the more populated farming towns of southern Indiana.

Other means to prevent or address suicide attempts also have gaps. "The fledgling 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline [also] faces serious problems," Weinstock reports. "Only 23% of Americans are familiar with 988 and there’s a significant knowledge gap about the situations people should call 988 for, according to a recent poll. . . . Most states, territories, and tribes have also not yet permanently funded 988, which was launched nationwide in July 2022."

While some regions are introducing 988 awareness campaigns, several states, including Colorado, are trying something new. Weinstock explains, "State officials installed financial incentives for implementing suicide prevention efforts, among other patient safety measures, through the state’s Hospital Quality Incentive Payment Program. . . .The program hands out about $150 million a year to hospitals for good performance. . . . Experts hope other states will follow Colorado’s lead."

The former politician who killed Las Vegas journalist Jeff German sentenced to "20 years to life"

CPJ graph of journalists or media professional killed while working in the U.S.

Two years ago Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was murdered while reporting stories centered on former Democratic politician Robert Telles. Telles was recently found guilty of German's murder, reports Ken Ritter of The Associated Press. The Nevada jury decided Telles will "serve 20 years to life in prison for killing German, who wrote articles critical of his conduct in office."

German's body was found in a side yard of his home over Labor Day weekend in 2022. Investigators quickly focused on Telles, who was arrested and held without bail a few days after German's death was discovered. Ritter writes, "Jurors deliberated for nearly 12 hours over three days before their unanimous vote that Telles ambushed and attacked the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter."

Telles showed little response while his "verdict was read in Clark County District Court," Ritter reports. "Telles didn’t speak then or when he learned his sentence. . . . His defense attorney told reporters outside court that his client plans to appeal. . . . Jessica Coleman, a county employee, was among several co-workers who urged German in 2022 to investigate Telles’ conduct heading the office of unclaimed estate and probate property cases. She sobbed after the verdict was read."

German was the only U.S. journalist killed in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a statement 'saying "the verdict 'sends an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated. . . . It is vital that the murder of journalists should be taken seriously and perpetrators held accountable.'"

To explore more of CPJ's data, click here.

Working-age rural residents are dying at 'wildly higher rates' than their urban counterparts; cause is undetermined

Photo by M. Vistocco

U.S. mortality rates can fall into two very different camps -- rural working-age death rates and everyone else's death rate. "Rural Americans age 25 to 54 — considered the prime working-age population — are dying of natural causes such as chronic diseases and cancer at wildly higher rates than their age-group peers in urban areas, according to a new report from the Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service," reports Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez of KFF Health News.

To compare the two groups, "USDA researchers analyzed mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from two three-year periods — 1999 through 2001, and 2017 through 2019," Rodriguez explains. "In 1999, the natural-cause mortality rate for rural working-age adults was only 6 percent higher than that of their city-dwelling peers. By 2019, the gap had widened to 43 percent." 

In reviewing demographic differences, Native American women fared the worst, but overall, a link between younger rural deaths and a lack of Medicaid expansion could be part of the cause. "USDA researchers and other experts noted that states in the South that have declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act had some of the highest natural-cause mortality rates for rural areas," Rodriguez reports. "But the researchers didn’t pinpoint the causes of the overall disparity."

Another possible connection could be the lack of rural health care options and rural hospital closures. "Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, and other health experts have maintained for years that rural America needs more attention and investment in its health care systems by national leaders and lawmakers," Rodriguez adds. "It’s unlikely that things have improved for rural Americans since 2019, the last year in the periods the USDA researchers examined. The coronavirus pandemic was particularly devastating in rural parts of the country."

California prosecutors charge fentanyl suppliers with murder. The legally unsettled approach is catching on.

Prosecutors in California are forging a path to make fentanyl dealers accountable for their part in overdose deaths by filing homicide charges against them. In Riverside County, California, county district attorney Mike Hestrin "has charged 34 suspected fentanyl suppliers with murder and is said to be the first prosecutor in California to achieve a guilty verdict from a jury in a fentanyl-related homicide trial," reports Michael Corkery of The New York Times. Some critics fault the prosecution of street dealers "as a misguided return to the aggressive approaches of the 1990s, which failed to curb drug use and swelled state prison populations."

But even in boldly liberal parts of the state, murder investigations of fentanyl overdoses are being used to discourage fentanyl sales and provide some level of justice for families. Corkery writes, "Some other counties — like San Diego and Placer, near Sacramento — that have also brought murder charges against fentanyl suppliers have sizable numbers of conservative-minded voters who tend to favor more punitive approaches to crime." Even in San Francisco, the district attorney's office is planning to prosecute fentanyl dealers for overdose deaths.

While prosecutors pursue murder charges against fentanyl dealers, their cases are on murky legal ground. "Prosecutors have been working around the fact that California does not have a law that specifically allows fentanyl deaths to be charged as murders," Corkery explains. 

Defense attorneys have responded to the prosecutions as "overbroad and unconstitutional," Corkery reports. But their complaints are being drowned out. "Parents whose children died from fentanyl are a driving force behind new laws and stepped-up prosecutions just as the parents of drunken-driving victims swayed the nation to crack down on alcohol-fueled traffic deaths decades ago."

To read more on how California prosecutors are using the Watson murder rule to prosecute fentanyl suppliers, click here. 

Drug Enforcement Administration statistics draw a startling picture of fentanyl's lethal power: It is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, and it's responsible for nearly 70 percent of the United States' 107,000+ drug overdose deaths in the past year. A educational warning video is shared below.

As the U.S. faces an ongoing mental health crisis, 988 call centers look to add geolocation services

In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention verified 45,979 suicides; in 2021, the numbers increased to 48,183. Added together, the number of people lost to suicides could fill the Rose Bowl Stadium. When the CDC's provisional suicide counts from 2022 and 2023 are tacked on, the death toll reaches 172,520. 

With those tragic numbers in mind, in 2022 the Biden administration transitioned the country's 10-digit suicide hotline to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which provides an easy-to-remember three-digit number for 24/7 crisis care. But the 988 program has a gaping problem: It lacks geolocation service, reports Kery Murakami of Route 50, which "means callers are being sent to call centers thousands of miles away from where they actually are. . . People dialing into the hotline are sent to a call center based on their area code, not on where they are physically calling from."

The lack of geolocation means 988 counselors lack the capacity to connect a caller with services and follow-up support in another state. Murakami explains, "The issue, according to Rob MacDougall, director of emergency services for Johnson County, Kansas, is that a call center in Kansas isn't equipped, for instance, to connect someone in Florida to the services and help they need." The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Federal Communications Commission are working with cellphone carriers to "test routing calls based on where a person in crisis is generally located." To ensure a level of privacy, call centers don't receive a caller's exact location.

While adding geolocation information will help 988 be more effective, some areas are still working to implement basic 988 services. "Many states are still working out technical kinks or struggling with staffing, which can lead to wait times or not reaching a counselor at all," Murakami reports. "In Florida, a distraught caller may have to sit on hold for 32 seconds, according to SAMHSA data. 

Despite struggles, the lifeline is making progress. "Before 988 was implemented, it might take several minutes to reach someone. Now the average response time has decreased from 2 minutes and 39 seconds to 41 seconds, according to SAMHSA," reports Christina Caron of The New York Times. 

In 1985-2014, suicide rates were highest among workers in lumber, wood and furniture; metal fabrication; and mining

Workers in several rural-oriented industries were found to have the highest suicide rates, in what the authors say is the first study of suicide rates by industry using nationally representative data.

The study looked at 1,943 suicides over 29 years, from 1985 to 2014. It found that age-adjusted suicide rates were highest in the furniture, lumber, and wood industry group (29.3 suicides per 100,000 population), the fabricated-metal industry (26.3 per 100,000), and mining (25.8). Railroading had the lowest rate (5.5), then education, banking, hospitals, and entertainment and recreation. 

Lines extending from numbers indicate possible maximum rates, due to
sample size. (Study graph, adapted by The Rural Blog; click to enlarge)

Most workers in the high-ranking industries are men, which may partially explain their rank. "Male-dominated industries often come with intense pressure, competition, and societal expectations that can significantly impact the mental health of individuals working within them," the authors write. "Male-dominated industries often involve high-stress jobs, long working hours, low pay, and limited work-life balance, all of which can contribute to chronic stress and mental-health problems."

The study, published in the Archives of Suicide Research, was conducted by Ahmed Arif and three other researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They note, "Suicide rates in the working-age U.S. population have increased by over 40% in the last two decades," with the latest annual total 48,000. "Between 1999 and 2017, the age-adjusted suicide rate increased from 10.5 to 14.0 per 100,000 population. Although suicide may be linked with characteristics of workplaces and their industries, few studies have reported industry-level suicide rates."

Why study such rates? "Characteristics of the workplace may affect suicide risk," the authors write. "Researchers have identified job stress, low job satisfaction, bullying and harassment, lack of support and resources, poor management practices, and job insecurity as some of the risk factors for suicide linked with the workplace." Also, "There is evidence that workplace suicide prevention is effective."

Many deaths at Wisconsin small dairy farms could be prevented; OSHA could use its authority to dig deeper

Cows, equipment and weather all contribute to dairy
farm dangers. (Photo via ProPublica)

Deaths on small dairy farms in Wisconsin often don't lead to safety inspections, perhaps leaving farm workers unprotected from preventable dangers. In the case of many deaths over the last decade, the Office of Safety and Health Administration never opens a case, citing a lack of authority; however, had the agency probed further, it could have done more," report Maryam Jameel and Melissa Sanchez of ProPublica. "How OSHA interprets and applies its definition of a "temporary labor camp" — and whether it should consider dairy workers temporary when farms produce milk year-round — has significant implications for the safety of thousands of workers in one of America's most dangerous industries."

ProPublica reports on three specific deaths of immigrant dairy workers that may have resulted from a lack of safety or training, but in each case, OSHA inspectors "went to the farms [and] left within an hour — without conducting investigations into the deaths. . . .The inspectors concluded they couldn't investigate because OSHA is banned from enforcing safety laws on farms with fewer than 11 workers unless they have employer-provided housing known as a 'temporary labor camp.'"

A broader look at dairy farm deaths raises more questions. "Since 2009, at least 17 workers, most of them immigrants, have died on Wisconsin dairy farms. Twelve of the deaths happened on farms with fewer than 11 workers. OSHA did not inspect eight of those 12, each time citing the small farms' exemption," Jameel and Sanchez write. "Records reviewed by ProPublica and interviews show that the agency may have more power to open an investigation into these farms than even its own leaders seem to be aware of."

In all three deaths ProPublica examined, how the inspectors so quickly came to their conclusions seems unclear. ProPublica reports, "Had the inspectors taken a slightly closer look, they might have learned that the farmers had readily talked with law enforcement officials about providing housing for their immigrant workers. . . . And if the inspectors had read OSHA's own files, they would have known that the agency has repeatedly, though inconsistently, inspected small farms after concluding a housing arrangement was a temporary labor camp."

Lola Loustaunau, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School for Workers, told ProPublica that 'it would really open the door for a lot of protections for workers' if OSHA consistently inspected small dairy farms that provide housing to immigrant workers."

For more about the history on the small-farm exemption as a budget rider, Christina Cooke of Civil Eats discusses it here.