Farm work has always played an important role in the lives of rural youth across America. In fact, in most rural areas working on a farm is often a kid’s first job. From milking cows and feeding livestock to harvesting crops in the summer, children often play a vital role in family farming.
But thanks to some over-zealous bureaucrats in the Obama administration, kids in rural America may soon be barred from performing traditional farm chores. And some in the farming community warn that these new rules, being proposed by various departments in the Obama Administration, could put some family farms in serious danger of failing.
New Federal regulations are being proposed that would bar children under the age of 16 from working on a farm owned by anyone other than their parents. The new regulations are so stringent that it would actually prohibit kids from working on any farm that wasn’t 100% owned by their parents. That means it would actually be illegal to help out on their own grandparent’s farm, even with their parent’s consent.
Family Farms Are not Immune.
The Department of Transportation is actually going right after Family Farmers. Their new rules would prohibit children under 16 from operating tractors, four-wheelers, riding mowers and other machinery, even on family farms. While some lawmakers seem to think these activities sound dangerous, what they fail to recognize is that farm work for these kids is not just work — it’s a way of life.
Many of them have grown up on these farms and play a vital role in the day-to-day operations of family farming. Without the ability to help their families, many of these farms will not be able to continue operating.
We have lost our understanding of rural life in this country, and if these new laws are allowed to take effect it will be a serious blow to everyone in the traditional farming community.
Try and stop me. Not all family is blood, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone stop me from helping anyone I consider family.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed new child labor regulations applicable to agriculture.
Let’s review this proposal as it is written.
The new regulations that will affect the agriculture industry will replace the latest regulations as set by the “Child Labor Requirements In Agricultural Occupations” under the “Fair Labor Standards Act (2007)”.
The rule changes to this Act, establishes a minimum age of 18 for hazardous work in nonagricultural employment and 16 in agricultural employment.
***The Act also provides a complete exemption from these rules for a youth who is employed on a farm owned by his or her parent.
DUH.
“DUH?”
The laws you cited are in the article, Snowflake. Of course, if you managed a high school diploma, your reading & comprehension levels are probably 4th grade at best. This is from research. Baccalaureate holders get all the way up to 9th grade level if they’re graduated. 12th grade level is the general level of someone awarded their master’s. This is based on a comparison of reading levels expected in textbooks in the 1950s & 60s. This teacher says you haven’t passed 2nd grade comprehension. This shows in your inability to understand the article, & to explain why you thought “DUH” was some sort of argument, justification, whatever, regarding your repetition of what the article says.
just another way the democrats are killing the families.seems they are trying to ruin love & marriage. It won’t be as easy to kill farmng families. we are a tough bunch. i remember working on my grandfathers farm with the cows.i loved it and didn’t do it for pay, but because i liked the work and my grandfather.
I grew up helping my grandfather on his farm and it gave me great experience and helped me develop good values. To many kids these days have no clue what hard work is. I am 23 years old and people are constantly telling me that I don’ act my age and they rely on me because they know i grewup working on a farm. i think that is an integral part of growing up, and wish more kids were brought up like that. Yes it could be dangerous, but it teaches you to respect safety and to use your head. What is wrong with that?
I agree with everything in the article. Doing farm work does teach great values and builds character. No, I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I belonged to 4H and tried to help out on a friend’s farm every chance I got while in high school. The thing is Dept of Transportaton can put alot of hurting on a farmer. For one thing, bar the tractor from being on the highway, plus throw in a few fines, heavy ones as well. Ask any trucker what DOT can do when you violate their regulations. The answer will most likely be alot. What I’m trying to say is take this article seriously.
This is just so ludicrous! When I was just a little thing, around 5 or so, I helped my Great Aunt and Uncle feed the chickens on their chicken farm. I also helped milk the cows, churn butter, collect the eggs – but that was at about age 10. There is NOTHING WRONG with helping your family out on the family farm, and I agree that it not only builds character and respect for your elders, but gives you growing tools and great work ethics. That ruling is beyond stupid!
Agenda 21.
I Was operating the tractor when I was 12. These bastards are out to destroy the family farm and our lifestyle.
just tell kids to work under the table, or pull a mexican. work anyway hidden amoungst the immigrant workers, to blend in with them.
These imbeciles can’t do a damn thing to HELP people in this country! They can’t stop gas prices from spiking up, ( ditto for food prices!), they can’t stop house values from falling off a cliff, they can’t help people who haven’t worked in years and have run out of unemployment. But they can butt their big fat noses in where they don’t belong: they think can tell us what kind of light bulbs we can use, what ingredients go into our dishwasher detergent, and what kind of food we can pack for our children’s school lunches. And now they’re going to tell people how to run their farms…. yeah, RIGHT!
Don’t go away mad, ObamaNazi slime, just GO AWAY
this bill wont stop people from working under the table either, if i was working in my preteens picking produce and oranges with immigrant workers i didnt give a rats ass about the feds and, i figure if they can make money even better and it is there choice kids would be jealous of those hard working kids whom want to buy cool things lol
Wow, totally messed up i recall my grandfather having me work on his farm in Mexico, in central california and, in guadalupe california. if it wasnt for him i wouldnt have no respect or values.. i really dont care for the Obama adminstration now! farms also make good punishment when children misbehave, I also recall working on a farm in my preteens while i attended school and, during my teens i worked with immigrant workers earning a dollar before summer was over. i liked the cash flow without a stupid work permit and, working under the table earned myself a lil money. the Feds should tell this to mexican kids they wont listen, laugh and they would gladly show off the rolls of dollar bills they earn in two to three months. Kids should work if they want to have spare money while the go to school. once again just means we have pussy democrats whom are just as lazy as mayates
OK. First and foremost – I am all about kids working, and even more so about farming and all family members assisting with it. The act of acquiring ones own food source is a major constituent in the physical/spiritual/emotional downfall of humanity.
One thing that just popped into my mind though – how many kids are poisoned, immediately, or later in life, by all the damn chemicals used in agriculture today? Remember, this is not a bill about home gardening – its about mass agriculture. And no – no child (or adult imo) should work near toxic chemicals (why we insist on spreading toxic chemicals on our food supply is beyond me, but that is a whole other ball game.
Just a thought … even if I do not agree with the bill itself
Farmers raise more then crops on their farms, they raise their children as well. The government thinks they love our children more then we do, and maybe you do a little as well….don’t wring your hands about me putting my child at risk….I don’t and no one I know does either.
It is unfortunate that when you think agriculture toxic chemicals “pops” into your mind. You can do a little more research at what happens when herbicides and insecticides are not available for use. These “tools” are expensive and not taken lightly.
Don’t just trust a farmer…get to know one and learn first hand what we do. You might be impressed. I Thank You for not supporting this Bill, It will fail.
I grew up on a farm and I can tell you my Father never let us kids around any of the fertilizers or any chemicals. The government makes farmers take classes to use those sorts of things.
I loved my childhood, those who would vote on this have no idea how we live and are just jelous that I grew up with a pet cow and all they had was a stupid rodent.
A 14 yo boy (the son of a family friend) just died in his mothers arms a few days ago, riddled with tumors from GMO’d foods and fracked water. If the government was serious about the health of citizens (children and adults alike), it wouldn’t PERMIT FRACKING near our waters, nor GMO’d crops to be cultivated and sold for consumption by animals and people.
This is a communist takeover; a land grab; a coup by lies. Isn’t that clear yet? Fight back!!
Most family farms don’t use the heavy duty chemicals corporate farms use. Corporate farms hAve to obey child labor laws because they’re CORPORATE farms, & no one working there is family, everyone is an emoloyee working for an employer. They don’t like that, so now they intend to force families to treat their kids like employees. That will kill off family farms so agribusiness can come by & snatched up their place for penines on the dollar…you see, farm families help one another out, going from farm to farm to help harvest things like wheat before it rains, food crops before they rot, & this would stop the from being a family-helping-family thing. Since that’s the only way small, privately owned farms make it through the harvests, this would destroy yhe..Once aginusinessctakes over, everythino will be laden with chemicals & GMOs. IMO you & other worriers (like me) about chemicals should worry more about agrihusiness’s agenda & less about chemical use on family farms. My husband WA rsisedan on a family farm. Theor use of chemicals is very limited by preference…& by expense!
I’d like to see a government official TRY to stop someone from doing something on their own property…..In TN we have the castle law, anyone approaches us on our land, regardless of who they have a badge for,will be shot, hard to see a badge when they are 6 acres away from me on a 1200 acre farm.
HELLO?
The same as we do not have to take weapons all we have to do is fix the ammo buying.The big picture is growing daily.
You do realize that this is in fact an attempt to shut the family farm down so all our food sources are controlled by commercial entities. They do not want privately owned farms, or should I say the Corporate States of America doesn’t want family farms.
Here in Western Canada, a kid from Saskatchewan will ALWAYS get hired because there is a great likelihood that he/she grew up on a farm and has the work ethic that employers desire … simple as that! It is obvious what is REALLY happening. The pirates are after the valuable land and resources that give us some measure of self-reliance! NASTARDS!
My family is a 5th generation farming family. My roots can be traced back to before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We have always been farmers. The laws they are making now are just so frivolous its hard to accept them. I live my life how I think it should be lived. I don’t harm anyone else. They can make whatever laws they want, sensible people will just not follow them anymore.
Liberal media, Liberal Democrats (demoncrats), think they have the right to force their ideas on all of us, they have totally quit going by our constitution, this president has over stepped the law on more than one occasion and wants us to believe they know better than us. Even now we the people are at war with our on gov. for our right to make our own choices right or wrong. I will say this, get ready for big brother for he carries a big stick and the world health organization will be his backup plan to take this country and turn it upside down…Its time we the people start planning for how we fight back….
Damn what are they gonna do next. They scream about how many folks in this country are over wieght and have no will to work for what they want or need. The ones who are brought up to work for what they need in life and OMG are healthy and fit are the ones they are going after now. If more poeple would get up and even mow their own grass instead of sitting in front of a video game we would have less over wieght people in this country. Leave the counrty folks alone and worry about something more important!
When our current government finally burns in hell, then justice will be done. I do not wish this on anyone, but they will never change from their hateful, self centered, inhumane ways. Obama is a man full of hate for this country, and everything that is Godly. I feel sorry for him and his sheeple. Wake up, the future in this country is bleek. Call me a conspiracy nut if you want, but I now know, FEMA camps are real, chem trials are real, paving the way to a one world government and total control of society is an agenda that has almost become reality. I feel for our children.
Skip to the end of THE BOOK. You know, the GOOD one.
All there, laid out, clear as crystal.
One might even say it is a “vision” of things to come.
BTW, the GOOD part about sloping to the end of the Book?
I know the Good Guy wins.
Amen.
*skipping.
Sorry, this phone is my defacto computer…… I promise better editing in the future.
Although I was never a farmer, I grew up in a farming community. Most of the people I knew worked on family farms, and it never caused them any harm. I would prefer that the government stay out of this particular issue. A couple of points though, on other people’s comments. SonOfSam, do you realize that Nazism is a far RIGHT WING form of government, not left wing? Calling Obama a Nazi is like calling North Korea a democracy. Someone else complained about the Democratic Party always wanting to impose their beliefs on people. Let’s be fair… both parties do that all the time, just about different things. Libertarians are the only party that doesn’t try to control the lives of other people.
Ok seriously here i mean i work on my grandfathers farm sometimes, not for money, and now this summer i am actually getting a job on our neighbors farm so i can making money plus where i live if your in high school or younger the only job you can get is working on a farm plus with how prices are on well everything the sooner you start making and saving money th better