Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety

What Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety does

The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS) is a research and training center hosted at the University of California, Davis, established in 1991 as one of the original two NIOSH Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health. It is one of 12 agricultural health and safety centers in the United States funded by the CDC/NIOSH through Cooperative Agreement U54 OH007550. WCAHS serves agricultural workers, employers, supervisors, and community-based organizations across the western U.S. (Arizona, California, Hawai'i, and Nevada), a region containing over 99,550 farms and ranches and more than one million agricultural workers that accounts for roughly 11% of national agricultural fatalities and 42.6% of agricultural injuries. Its mandate is research, training, and outreach to prevent occupational illness and injury in western agriculture.

WCAHS operates a portfolio of interactive bilingual (English/Spanish) training programs — including Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), heat illness prevention, wildfire smoke exposure, frontline supervisor, and WOSH Specialist training — alongside downloadable educational materials covering workers' rights, animal safety, COVID-19, and sexual harassment prevention. Research projects span co-exposure to wildfire smoke and agricultural emissions, biosolarization as a pesticide alternative, ATV safety engineering controls, antimicrobial resistance in dairy farmworkers via metagenomics, and continuous agricultural injury surveillance using machine learning algorithms that extract injury data by state, crop, and task. The center also runs programs such as ADAPT (training farmworkers in autonomous tractors, collaborative robots, and agrivoltaics), the COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP), and the Spanish-language Pláticas en Confianza engagement space for promotores.

WCAHS is not a commercial enterprise. All training, materials, and technical assistance are provided free of charge. The center is funded through CDC/NIOSH cooperative agreements, supplemented by state contracts from agencies such as the California Department of Industrial Relations, the California Employment Development Department, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the USDA Agriculture Marketing Service. Governance sits under UC Davis, a public university system. The go-to-market is community-led: direct outreach and partnership with community-based organizations in Imperial, San Diego, and Central Coast regions, combined with digital distribution via the aghealth.ucdavis.edu website, social media, and downloadable materials.

Name

Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety

Legal name

Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety

Website

https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS) is a UC Davis research and training center providing free bilingual occupational health training, educational materials, and applied research to agricultural workers, employers, and community organizations across the western United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Agricultural Occupational Health and Safety Research

NAICS

Educational Services (61), Educational Support Services (6117)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

General Occupational Safety & OSHA Compliance (EDABAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Occupational Safety, OSHA & Workplace Compliance Training (EDAOAMAK), Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Training (EDAGANAI)

Keywords

• Agricultural occupational health
• Worker safety training
• Farmworker health research
• Pesticide exposure prevention
• Heat illness prevention

Headquarters

HQ city

Davis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Government Grants and Cooperative Agreements: Primary funding from CDC/NIOSH Cooperative Agreement U54 OH007550 supporting core center research and training activities as one of 12 agricultural health and safety centers in the U.S.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

WCAHS is a research and training center that provides free bilingual (English/Spanish) interactive occupational health and safety trainings, educational materials, and applied research to improve the health and safety of agricultural workers in the western United States. Its core deliverables include training programs on wildfire smoke exposure, heat illness prevention, IIPP, and frontline supervisor safety, along with research projects on emerging hazards such as antimicrobial resistance, ATV safety, and biosolarization alternatives to pesticides.

Product overview

The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (WCAHS) is a research and training center at UC Davis offering a portfolio of training programs, educational materials, and research projects focused on agricultural worker health and safety. The core offerings include bilingual interactive trainings (Wildfire Smoke Exposure, Heat Illness Prevention, Frontline Supervisor Training, IIPP Training, WOSH Specialist Training) and programs (ADAPT, CWOP, SAFE, Pláticas en Confianza). Educational materials span heat illness, wildfire smoke, workers' rights, animal safety, COVID-19, and sexual harassment prevention. Research projects address co-exposures to emissions, biosolarization, ATV safety, antimicrobial resistance, and occupational surveillance. A Small Grant Program funds external researchers. WCAHS is one of 12 NIOSH Agricultural Health and Safety Centers established by CDC.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 99% of frontline supervisor training participants would recommend the training
• +3 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• UC Davis (University of California, Davis)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost institution for WCAHS. UC Davis is ranked first in the nation for agriculture. The center leverages UC Davis faculty, facilities, and research infrastructure.
• Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) at UC BerkeleycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in WOSHTEP (Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program) administered by California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation. LOHP at UC Berkeley and LOSH at UCLA conduct training through interagency agreements.
• Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) at UCLAcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner in WOSHTEP (Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program) administered by California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation. UCLA LOSH conducts training through interagency agreement.
• California Coalition for Rural HousingmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnering with WCAHS researchers to conduct the farmworker housing study funded by State of California and administered by California Department of Housing and Community Development (AB1654).
• UC Centers CollaborationmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWCAHS collaborates with other UC centers to implement COVID-19 Workplace Outreach Project (CWOP) which aims to improve workplace health, safety, and working conditions for California workers.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety: NIOSH Ag Center covering Colorado and the intermountain region; conducts occupational health and safety research and training for agricultural workers using the same federal funding structure as WCAHS.
• Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center: NIOSH Ag Center at University of Minnesota serving the upper Midwest; provides agricultural safety and health research, training, and outreach using the same federal funding model as WCAHS.
• Central States Center for Agricultural Safety and Health: NIOSH Ag Center at University of Nebraska Medical Center serving the central US; same NIOSH cooperative agreement funding and comparable agricultural worker health research/training mission as WCAHS.
• National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety: Sister NIOSH Agricultural Safety & Health Center at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute; one of 12 federally designated centers performing research, training, and outreach to reduce agricultural injury and illness — directly comparable mission, funding model, and stakeholder base as WCAHS.
• Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley-based occupational safety and health training and education program; direct WOSHTEP partner with WCAHS under California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, conducting worker safety training for similar vulnerable worker populations.
• Southeast Center for Agricultural Safety and Health: NIOSH Ag Center at University of Kentucky covering the southeastern US; same cooperative agreement model, agricultural worker training, and research focus as WCAHS, with similar stakeholder engagement approach.
• Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health: NIOSH Ag Center at University of Iowa serving the Great Plains region; conducts agricultural injury and illness prevention research and training under the same cooperative agreement model as WCAHS.
• Southwest Center for Agricultural Health and Safety: NIOSH Ag Center at University of Texas at Tyler serving the southwestern US; same federally funded cooperative agreement structure and agricultural worker safety training/research focus as WCAHS.
• Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH), UCLA: UCLA-based occupational safety and health training program; direct WOSHTEP partner with WCAHS under California state contracts, delivering worker safety training to similar California worker populations including agricultural workers.
• Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center: NIOSH Ag Center at University of Washington covering the Pacific Northwest region; conducts research, training, and outreach on agricultural health and safety using the same cooperative agreement model as WCAHS.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/aghealthucd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety