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
Wow, what a great way to keep future generations away from learning the joys of growing your own food and making it available to the community. Truly the world is going down the crapper when we prefer kids to sit on the couch all day instead of actually doing something productive.
Freaking Crazy
Again, there is indeed an exemption for parent-owned farms. But not for farms owned by grandparents, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, cousins, family friends,…. Kids would be allowed to work on one farm alone.
This is horrible. It truly is horrible…what a way to subvert the idea of hard labor as a way of life.
While I agree that it’s a sh*tty law, your headline is misleading and sensationalist. You make it sound as though Obama actually said video games are better than farm work, which he didn’t and I doubt he ever would. You assume that video games and TV are the only alternative to farmwork for these kids, which is absolute b.s. and I can think of a thousand things in between. You do yourself and your point a disservice by being misleading and appealing to people’s emotions rather than rationality.
Couldn’t agree more with your comment, L.!
L-I understand you comment b/c I’m sure this is not Obama’s intent but we need to realize that making these laws do not improve the greater good but instead paralyse them. Why should government have a right to tell parents how to raise their kids in this scenario? This proposed law was not created b/c 1,000 of kids/year lose their lives to farming accidents but instead to kill the family farm so corporations can take over and regulate it. Perfect timing as the sustainable living movement is gaining momentum and a perfect way to kill this movement since these corporations probably feel threaten by it. If you want to regulate something…… regulate the corporation. Of couse that can’t happen b/c they control the government. In reality, this has nothing to do with Obama but instead government (all parties) as a whole.
Sara, is there petitions or contacts that can be made? Has Change.org started one? Or other organizations starting to protest this? If PETA can influence government laws I would have the hope that the american farmers association (is there such a thing?) and the common man could have similar influence although this is only determined by man’s willingness to get involved which unfortunately does not happen as much as it needs to.
It all depends on how you look at it. If you are looking at it completely black and white, then yes it is sensationalist as Obama never directly said that. However, if you examine the grey areas and the nuances behind this proposed rule, Obama is indeed saying this as farm chores would be prohibited but video games would not.
Excellent point! Couldn’t agree more! I respect Sarah’s work and enjoy reading most of her articles but this is out of line. Very Glen Beckish. Disapponting. Sarah’s posts are starting to lose creditibility more and more for me.
Yes. Glenn Beckish. And that is NOT OKAY.
Yes, the law is absolute hokey. But I think this is sensationalist way of describing the issue. It feels like a slapshot to get people to read the article. I don’t know…it bothers me when people claim a president or other politician says something unless it actually comes out of their mouths.
The law may be bad, if some people who did the research, are right in claiming the law said nothing about farm kids, and just other people’s young kids. . .that tells me it’s a law for protecting our youth from being sucked into child labor. Yes, there should be a similar one that says you have to be older and hopefully wiser before you can work at McDonalds, then maybe no one would! Seriously though, it’s not likely going to make any difference. The people who want to work will just call it play and not get payed, or do some bartering. No one’s simply going to send their kids to their room to play video games now because they feel thwarted by the government. Peoplemay be stupid in the city, on drugs and bad food, but not country folks! That title made me really think poorly about the president, and I think that would be called slander. If you want to mock and slander your “God given” leader, maybe you need to read up what God tells you to do for our leaders. . .correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it’s “pray”. Not that I recommend only that, or even a lot in the Bible, but as I believe you claim to follow it, maybe you should just try to be a little more respectful of his position and how hard he tries, without having to put words in his mouth and presume his motives. (Not to mention misquote the purposed law.)
Sarah, I guess some people just don’t like hearing the truth.
Huh?
Is there anything we can do? This is so horrible. The government already set standards and calls on nutritionism, and look how that is turning out.
They (the government) don’t have a clue!! I grew up on a farm working ground; throwing hay bales in the elevator — learned what hard work is. I still drive by farms now and wish I was back doing what I used to do.
Joseph, I disagree.
Yes, the parent-owned farm part was an error… let’s take the political excuse and say that someone “misspoke”. BUT, it is not a distortion to say that many children will still be unable to learn the business from their parent’s. Not all farm-working families own the farm anymore; yet, they are still in charge of the farm. I am frustrated by how quickly this issue is being cast aside due to a error in reporting (and that happens on both sides of any issue, all the time – so thank you for your input bringing clarity).
That error is now corrected; however, the regulation is still highly faulty. There are better ways to achieve safety for workers of all ages – this isn’t one of the better ways.
This is so sad.
Unfortunately until we repeal Citizens United, the Corporations own our political system and our food system.
A couple states have started to try to gather the momentum to repeal Citizens United–we need a total of 30 states.
With unchecked power, Corporate America will bleed this country dry.
This isn’t a result of Citizens United. This is control-freak, special-interest-bought politicians and power-hungry bureaucrats doing what they do best — bullying in the name of the people. In theory, protecting people from themselves. In practice, protecting the sources of their campaign cash. Citizens United has nothing to do with politicians having the lobbyists in their back pockets; that’s been the state of things since the beginning. It was no less before Citizens United, nor has it increased since its passage. It’s the way Washington has always worked.
I have to agree with Jessica on this… I think the topic deserves closer scrutiny to really root out the purpose and the both the benefits/drawbacks… But for the first time I don’t think this post is considering enough sources… Here’s the link to the DOL statement.
I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I grew up in farm country. I worked on farms from 12 yo to 18 yo. My dad has worked for a local farmer since he retired from GM many years back. Some of my mom’s best memories are visiting/helping on her aunt’s farm when she was young. I buy local meat/chicken/eggs direct from farmers year round and veggies & fruit seasonally. I plan to enroll my son in 4-H as soon as he’s old enough. I care about this topic greatly! I do hope the outcry will help our politicians clarify their recommendations and address public concerns. But please give the government some credit for trying to address some very significant safety issues!
Well said, Kristi. As soon as I read this post, I immediately started fact-checking — it does not behoove us to jump the gun on any [mis]information. The proposed law pertains to hired farm workers, not the kids of family farmers.
Per The Child Labor Coalition, “The agribusiness and the farm lobby have voiced strong opposition to the protections, resulting in Members of Congress introducing legislation in the House and Senate to block the implementation of the protections.” The last sentence of this post states, “It’s just the cha-ching of campaign contributions from Monsanto.” Last I checked, Monsanto is part of agribusiness, therefore logic would dictate that they are one of the businesses opposed to this bill which would cause great difficulty for them in getting their monoculture-crops harvested cheaply.
Pleas, everyone, let’s fact-check all information instead of being reactionary to one post. Please visit the following links and decide for yourselves:
http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2662
http://www.politifact.com/tennessee/statements/2012/apr/15/lamar-alexander/lamar-alexander-says-child-farm-labor-rules-could-/
http://www.examiner.com/article/kids-can-still-work-on-family-farms-and-do-4-h-under-proposed-law