Excerpt
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): Working conditions in much of the agriculture industry rarely capture national attention. And that includes the grain storage business.
But the storage of grain in huge silos is a growing business, ever more so in the age of biofuels. Now a new investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity, among others, is raising tough questions about its labor practices.
Among the findings, there have been at least 179 deaths at commercial storage facilities since 1984 and numerous others on farms themselves. In many cases, workers like 14-year-old Wyatt Whitebread of Mount Carroll, Ill., literally suffocated to death, buried in corn in the silo. Other deaths result from explosions.
2010 was the deadliest year on record, with 26 killed. Commercial facilities are overseen by a federal agency, OSHA, but the investigation found that the government's initial fines of the companies ultimately were reduced by nearly 60 percent.
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