With the average age of the American farmer now over 50 years old according to the Environmental Protection Agency and the family farm on visible life support, the Obama Administration has moved to put the ailing patient out of his misery with a well aimed bullet right between the eyes.
What better way to ensure the complete and utter death of the family farm in just a few short years than to prohibit the children of farm owning parents from working the land and learning the business alongside Mom and Dad?
A proposed new rule from the Obama Administration would ban children under 18 from any farm work which involves the “storing, marketing, and transporting of farm product raw materials.”
A Labor Department press release read that “Prohibited places of employment would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.”
In addition, under this proposed rule, independent groups like 4-H would no longer be allowed to teach and certify safety training to children replacing such locally based youth agricultural programs with a 90 hour federal government training course.
Let’s think about this for a moment.
This rule forbids just about every farm chore I can think of right down to coloring a flyer with paper and crayons to decorate the farm’s booth at the local Farmer’s Market.
So, what are farm kids supposed to do then if they can’t do much of anything around the farm until they are 18 which includes running a small business of their own on the farm to generate some income for college?
I guess they can always play video games or watch TV instead. Surely there’s a video game out there where children can simulate farm chores without ever leaving the living room couch!
A generation of farm kids raised on sloth instead of a hard work ethic will undoubtedly ensure that few family farms will make it into the next generation’s hands.
With children not able to be mentored by their parents on the farm nor by other local agricultural leaders in their community via 4-H or FFA, loss of interest in agriculture by the next generation of family farmers is virtually guaranteed.
Wait a minute!
Did you hear something?
Oh, nevermind. It’s just the cha-ching of campaign contributions from Monsanto.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source:Â Rural Kids, Parents Angry About Labor Department Rule Banning Farm Chores
He is N.U.T.S.
and you can’t take them to the auctions???? That’s child abuse!! Cha-ching, ya I heard it
This is un American look at where it comes from
they have lost their ever loving minds
This makes my stomach churn.
I can not believe what gets by without the slightest mention on cable “news”.
How can we fight this? And why is the government becoming so involved with every aspect of our lives!?
One way to fight is not voting for politicians whose philosophies include making government bigger than that established by the founders.
Amen to that!
Amen!
Well,that will surely kill the family farm, once and for all. And there will be nothing left but the corporate food factories, which is exactly what the food industry wants. This is one of the most despicable things done by any government, It reminds me of the “get big or get out” policy of the Nixon administration, which destroyed so many family farms. But this is worth, as it stops the training of the next generation.
This just floors me! I grew up on a lily farm (granted, I’m not sure if that would fall under this agricultural “law” or not). The best thing my parent’s ever did for my brother and sisters and I was make us work on the family farm. I had cousins (about 10 or 12 of them) who would also come stay for the summer and work on the farm. It taught us all an incredible work ethic, the value of a job well done, the value of dollar earned. We learned to take pride in our work. It also taught us to respect our father, who worked 18 hour days during the fall harvest season. He learned HIS work ethic growing up on a farm himself. We also developed a great love and connection with the land. The lessons learned on our family farm stay with me today in everything I do.
I think it’s a great travesty, and practically criminal to take this away from children.
If it wasn’t clear before, I hope we are all paying attention now and realizing that we all have a responsibility to work against these attacks on the public’s health, well-being, privacy, work, homes, finances, and best interests. That we cannot afford to be divided.
It’s not legislation … it’s a bureaucratic RULE issued by the Executive Branch of the US government. It’s creating “law” out of thin air via an executive order circumventing the legislative process.
wow. that is so much worse. I didn’t realize the details. Is there any way this can be overturned? How can they just do that… I wonder how much MONSANTO had to pay to get that thru. Still makes me so MAD.
Monsanto didn’t have to pay anything, obeyme put a Monsanto CEO on the highline of the FDA…govt is in bed with big business..the govt WANTS people sick
Sad, Sarah, I expected more from you. Truth, truth, truth. It’s the only way to the ultimate truths. Misinterpretations for your own agendas – is that what your site is really about?
This makes me so upset. We have family farms and the boys love being a part of it. They are little right now, but I always knew when they got older they would participate more. I can’t believe the government is legislating what parents can and can’t do with their kids when it comes to farming. I still don’t know what to think of this whole thing. I will gladly take the fine if it ever came to that.
If the fine is anything like breaking the current child labor laws on the books (such as giving under 18’s a 30 minute break every 4 hours, not over 28 hours a week, etc.) then you’re looking at paying about $10,000 per offense. Let’s hope that this one dies before it even makes it to the president’s desk to be signed!
I have hope now that I have read the article about the specific details. Sometimes it is nice to have a few attorney’s in the family too 🙂