Children Who Work on Tobacco Farms Exposed to Harmful Toxins. The Invisible Harvest. Locals React to DOL’s Failed Farm Proposal. Some Peoria County residents believe the U.S.
Department of Labor’s failed proposal is a prime example of over-regulation. In the midst of a slumping economy and a state unemployment rate of 8.2 percent, one wouldn’t imagine agriculture to be on the short list of hot button political issues. But since the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a regulation that would have prohibited young people from operating farm machinery, local residents and some local farmers have been speaking out. Protection or Over-regulation? For generations, agricultural skills and knowledge have been passed down to young people through on-the-job-training on family farms.
In response, members of congress co-authored a letter to U.S. Local farmers believe hands-on training in the fields is the best preparation for young people hoping to operate their own farms as adults. Others cite the DOL’s proposal as another example of government over-regulation. Unwavering Opposition The U.S. The U.S. Pitting Child Safety Against the Family Farm. LAST month, a proposal by the United States Department of Labor to prevent children under age 16 from working in dangerous farm jobs ignited a firestorm in conservative media outlets.
The new rules would have restricted having young workers handle pesticide, operate heavy machinery, cut timber and perform other agricultural tasks identified as hazardous to children by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Conservatives quickly went on the attack. Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, argued that “if the federal government can regulate the kind of relationship between parents and their children on their own family’s farm, there is almost nothing off-limits in which we see the federal government intruding in a way of life.” Fox News posted a story entitled, “Team Obama Wants Children Banned from Doing Farm Chores.” This is not the first time reform of agricultural child labor laws has been beaten back by a supposed threat to the family farm.
Farm And Ranch Kids Get Opportunity To Work. Growing up, my younger sisters and I were Dad’s chore help.
He taught us how to feed cattle, drive the four-wheeler and tractor, stack bales, pitch manure, fix fence, chop weeds and treat sick calves. While kids in town may have had to do chores like wash dishes and make their bed, we were busy working outside, learning from a young age that the cattle relied on us to care for them. Although I didn’t always appreciate having to work on the ranch, looking back now, I know the chores helped shape me into who I am today.
More than that, without us to help with the chores, Dad would have had to hire employees to help. If the Obama administration’s Department of Labor (DOL) had its way, a lot of kids wouldn’t be allowed to help on the farm or ranch. But, just because DOL pulled back the proposed rule doesn’t mean agriculture felt confident about future regulations that might impose on family traditions. What do you think of the legislation? Child-labor rules could limit what kids are allowed to do on farms. GRAND RIDGE, Ill. – Tossing hay into cattle pens is the first chore Austin Walter remembers doing on his parents' farm.
When he was 9, he got his first lesson in operating a tractor — in first gear only, his dad, Darren, says, "so I could go catch him. " Austin, who is now 14, tends heifers, makes sure the barbed-wire fence around the pasture is intact and helps clean equipment and care for calves on his grandfather and great-uncle's bigger farm a couple of miles down the road. "This is what I want to do," says Austin, an A student and football player who has won many awards for showing livestock at fairs. "If you grow up in the farm atmosphere and you're safely trained and you enjoy it, I think you should be allowed to. " PHOTOS: The Walter family farm in Grand Ridge, Ill. Proposed federal regulations could alter Austin's plans to work part time for pay on his relatives' farm. The new rules would: The legal age for children to be employed on a farm is 16 and would not change.
Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores. Update, April 26, 7:55 p.m.: Citing public outrage, the Department of Labor has withdrawn the controversial rulemaking proposal described in this article.
A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. Child labour: the tobacco industry's smoking gun. At the height of the tobacco harvest season, Malawi's lush, flowing fields are filled with young children picking the big green-yellow leaves.
Some can count their age on one hand. News In-depth: Child Labor. Voices From the Field: Mexico By Karen Fanning Each day, Audelia heads to work on a tobacco farm in Santiago Ixcuintla Nayarit, Mexico.
Her job? To watch over her 14-month-old baby brother while her poverty-stricken parents labor in the fields to try to make ends meet. Audelia is 4 years old. The Mexican preschooler is among hundreds of children who leave their homes in the surrounding mountains each January to work in tobacco fields alongside their parents. Child Labor on Farms Caught on Tape.