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
I am completely sick to my stomach. Who do we even vote for in this election??? Who doesn’t have ties to Monsanto???? Where is the freedom in this so-called free country?!!!!!!
Bethany- I appreciate your frustration! Monsanto is now so deeply entrenched into our government that there is no candidate who represents “we the people.” Politicians don’t work for us, they work for corporations. I picture them all laughing at us because so many still believe that the guy they voted for actually cares about them.
This link is for a video and it sums up our country’s status perfectly. A word of warning however: It is raunchy and has cuss words, but if you can tune that out, the message could not ring more true.
Ron Paul!!
Vote Ron Paul!
Rashell
Agreed! He has actually proposed bills to legalize raw milk! Love it.
The only politicians I know who refuse to talk to lobbyists are Ron Paul, and Justin Amash.
Ron Paul has my vote, too.
This goes hand in hand, too, with the trend in our society to push parents to literally spoil their children, to claim that children with regular chores are being used as slave labor, that the parents who gives chores are lazy and selfish.
I have seen more outward and emboldened proof of this wrong thinking in the last year than I had in the previous 5 years before that. People are out in public, and especially online pushing and campaigning for us to believe that we are mistreating our children by teaching them responsibility and even if they cannot convince good parents of this absurdity as it applies to their own home they are making headway in the department of casting doubt and suspicion on households that essentially appear to have happy, healthy, well-adjusted kids that are not rebelling enough to satisfy the demands of these advocates of advanced sloth and frivolity.
There are a lot of people out there who genuinely want to completely destroy and eliminate all semblance of the traditional family. And farm families are a threat to their vision in the same way that small farms are a threat to globalists. With all the overlap between the family haters and the globalists circles, it isn’t surprising that they have come up with this.
If this was about “preventing modern day slavery” then it would force Walmart to treat their employees better. What child is “forced” to work on a farm against their will? Most of the farm kids I know, even and especially my 6 year old son WANT to work on farms. They LOVE it. Thrive on it! When I read this proposal to my 6 year old, he said it would make him very sad if he was not allowed to work on a farm.
At 14 years old, my husband drove a tractor hauling two full wagons of hay down the side of a highway for more than 10 miles and helped unload that hay. He butchered hogs, shoveled manure, did field work, etc etc etc. And he LOVED it. It made a man out of him, a hard working man, a dedicated man, not to mention a strong handsome man too….ooooohhh…love those farmer muscles!
When I was a teenager my mother moved us out to a small farming town..I have never met more responsible, hardworking teenagers in all the many places I have moved. The great work ethic they had at home, carried through in school, in that particular area the farm kids went to college for agriculture, etc. Hard working kids make great adults. I have so much respect for farmers and their families, what a great way to raise a family…..what a bad idea this rule is.
I followed the links to the original government press release and it clearly states that this WOULD NOT apply to children on farms owned by their parents.
This is definitely hopeful, but I would still want to read the actual legislation itself. You can say anything you want in a press release, but it’s how the law itself is written that matters. Even if the labor department intent at this time is that farm family children would be excluded from this law, if the legislation itself is not written clearly to explain that, it could still be twisted at any future time to disallow farm kids to work on the family farm.
Can you tell me why you think it doesn’t apply to children whose parents own farms? I went and looked at the actual proposed legislation (which is not even referenced in this article) and this is a direct quote:
“The proposed
agricultural revisions would impact
only hired farm workers and in no way
compromise the statutory child labor
parental exemption involving children
working on farms owned or operated by
their parents.”
I’m all about preserving freedoms, but I think sometimes we start making accusations before learning all the facts. Sarah is referencing another article written about the legislation, not even the legislation itself.
oops – meant to say why you think it DOES apply to kids whose parents own farms…
Exempt from working on their parents’ farm, yes. Not their uncle’s and aunt’s farm, not their grandpa and grandma’s farm, not their brother’s or sister’s farm, not their brother or sister in-law’s farm. Not the farm down the road. Just the one farm. They can work on that one farm.
Because we all know federal bureaucrats care more about Mr. Farmer’s kid’s health and safety than Mr. Farmer does, when he allows him to go work on grandpa’s farm.
Also the part about taking the authority away from the 4-H and FFA to teach farm safety to farm kids, and handing it over to the federal government, is true.
This is beyond belief. If there is *ONE* thing that may cause both Democrats & Republicans and nearly everyone else come together and rise in protest, it just may be *INSANE* farm policies like this.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
If I could “like” this page again, I would… mainly BECAUSE of this post. Why? Because it makes people aware and assists in correcting certain misunderstandings, etc. It is true that this wouldn’t apply to kids working on farms owned by their parents (or so it seems); but, a child would be prevented from working on “Grandpa’s Farm” for the summer, or learning on a neighbor’s farm.
OR, as was my case, working on a farm that my father managed… something that I still cherish. It’s bogus, and if anyone doesn’t see this for what it really is (and preventing modern-day slavery is an excuse if ever I’ve heard one), then the Kool-Aid must taste really, really great.
It is important to read the whole thing 🙂
Im was new to the page, I didnt expect to see this here. Unliking this page because of this post, and the mindset that caused it to be posted. Good luck with your page and good bye.