Proclamation 4494—National Farm Safety Week, 1977

Many of the men and women who founded our nation were farmers, and farmers were a major factor in turning this land from a wilderness to a great and productive nation. As we enter our third century, the majority of our people no longer live on farms, but each farmer and farm worker has a more vital role than ever before in our common welfare. Not only our own people in cities and towns, but millions of others around the world, depend on the food and fiber produced on America's farms.

Every year hundreds of thousands of farm and ranch residents suffer unnecessary injury, and sometimes disability and death, from accidents on the farm. The dollar loss is great, but the cost in human suffering is even greater. We have already done much to make agriculture safer, but we can do more. With a new awareness of the importance of farm safety we can insure that the equipment and chemicals used on the farm are safe for both farmer and consumer.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week of July 25 through July 31, 1977, as National Farm Safety Week. I urge all who live and work on the nation's farms and ranches to commit themselves to safe conduct in all activities. Further, I urge all who work with and serve agricultural producers to assist and support them in this effort in every possible way.

In Witness Whereof, I hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-seven, and of the Independence of the .United States of America the two hundred and first.

JIMMY CARTER