Parents defend putting children to work on farms

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index...n-to-work-on/2e8a530e45074e95a8d1b9c56c4b835a

FULTS, Ill. (AP) — As he watched his 10-year-old son ease a tractor across a soybean field, Dennis Mosbacher acknowledged the risks of farming.

But Mosbacher said the U.S. Labor Department was misguided in its attempts to protect children from farm accidents and he's relieved the agency dropped its plans this spring and has promised not to take up the matter again.

"You can't make a rule to stop every accident," Mosbacher said after his son Jacob hopped off the 40-year-old, 60-horsepower tractor at their farm near the tiny southern Illinois town of Fults. "There's always a risk in life, no matter what you do."

Labor Department officials don't deny that, but they note that children performing farm work are four times more likely to be killed than those employed in all other industries combined.

Under the Labor Department's failed proposal, paid farm workers would have to be 16 to use power equipment, such as tractors. They would have to be 18 to work at grain elevators, silos and feedlots. The rules would not have applied to children working at farms owned by their parents, but they would have limited the paid jobs youngsters could do on their neighbors' and relatives' farms.


More at link.....

In the good ole days, children worked on the farms. It teaches them responsibility and about hard work. It teaches them that they have to work to support a family and a home. No legislation is going to completely stop accidents from happening. Granted, you shouldn't be putting a four-yo in charge of a tractor, but parents should be allowed to decide when their child is responsible enough to begin helping around the farm.

I had my daughter helping with the dishes when she was three years old. What if she had slipped on some spilled water and cracked her head open? Should there be legislation against kids doing the dishes?

How ridiculous.

agreed hopefulone. Don't mess with the family farm, big brother, you've got plenty of other fish to fry.

How about we go after factory farms/agribusiness, for all the bad they do, instead of family farms!

Reader said:

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/index...n-to-work-on/2e8a530e45074e95a8d1b9c56c4b835a


Labor Department officials don't deny that, but they note that children performing farm work are four times more likely to be killed than those employed in all other industries combined.


More at link.....

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They never use real numbers. Check this -


On average, 113 youths under the age of twenty die annually from farm-related injuries. Dividing this number by America's 1.3 million farm kids results in a fatality rate of 8.7 deaths per 100,000 youths. However, 35% of these deaths are attributed to motor vehicles, ATVs, and drowning.


In comparison, the Centers for Disease Control report that 716 bicyclists were killed in 2008, and a sample of 100 hospitals recorded that nearly 240,000 kids fourteen and younger were treated for bike-related accidents. In 2007, an additional 700-plus youths under the age of fourteen drowned.

Should we now ban kids from swimming and riding their bikes?



Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011...abor_vs_americas_farm_kids.html#ixzz20FEMaPK0

I might be reading that article wrong but I'm under the impression this is about child labor laws (labor for wages) instead of minors helping out on their family's farm.

I found this that kind of outlines what the law was about:

June 17, 2012 9:18 PM

http://www.yumasun.com/news/work-79793-agriculture-labor.html

And just another I grabbed when I did a very quick search:

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/harrow-children-of-the-fields-2399637.html
Updated: 10:37 a.m. Monday, June 18, 2012

Researchers interviewed 59 children working in Texas and 13 other states. They learned farm workers as young as 12 often labor 10 or more hours a day, up to seven days a week.

None of them get overtime pay. Some start working part-time at 6 or 7.

These children typically earn far less than minimum wage and sometimes must buy tools, gloves and drinking water that employers by law should provide. They drop out of school at four times the national rate.

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I also saw this but I'm just adding this because I wasn't aware of this and had not heard about it:

http://www.valleycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=774165

Federal investigators discovered that the company had children as young as 6 and 10 years old working in the fields going back to 2010.

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I think that this law isn't directed at parents who own farms that let their children work for no wages but is directed at farms and agribusiness that uses child workders?

My opinion: This is a hard issue for me to come to an opinion about. 1. I prefer that the federal government stay out of civilians lives as much as possible. (OT but I lean moderate libertarian in political views about that lol).

But---2. Children being hired for scant wages, working 10-12 hours a day up to 7 days a week, and not having their wellbeing and safety looked after makes me cringe.

hmmm. I'm not quite sure what to think about this. JMHO

I worked on a farm as a kid. My kids work on a farm when they go to their uncles, and believe me the good far outweighs the bad. Now, of course, with my kids being young, most of the dangerous jobs are out of bounds for them anyway. But my six year old is mature enough and careful enough to help move tools, including some that are sharp and potentially dangerous if he doesn't handle them right. I trust his uncle to be sure that he isn't jerking around and getting hurt. When he gets older, he can start driving a tractor, and he already knows how to steer and manuever a tractor, trailer, harvester, thresher, you name it, from sitting in the cab and occasionally getting to steer with one of the adults.

I trust farm folk to know when their kids are ready to help out, either on their own farms or nearby ones. Yes, kids will be kids, and accidents happen, but the risks are a lot less than if they go join a gang. I'd choose farm work for my kid any day, especially over a lot of the other things they could be doing with their time.

I live in a very rural area and kids around here learn to drive atvs, tractors and other such things at an early age. They are so much more self sufficient and hard working than city kids. They love being a part of the family operation and take pride in doing a job well. They are learning important work skills and they know the satisfaction and accomplishment that comes from a job well done. City kids seem to miss out on so much by comparison.
I remember an episode of wifeswap ( or a similar show) where a city mom and country mom switched places. Well the city mom went to the country to a family farm and decided that the kids should NOT be doing chores, helping with the cows, milking, cleaning stalls, etc and forbid it. Well the kids started crying and were so upset. They loved their animals and they loved working alongside their parents on their farm.

I don't see anything wrong with kids helping out, learning the value of work and contributing to the family property which will some day be theirs. I think it is in important lesson. But I don't think kids should be forced to work to support the family and I think migrant workers children should be working when they should be in school.

Gardenlady said:

How about we go after factory farms/agribusiness, for all the bad they do, instead of family farms!

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I'd love to go after a lot of the hydroponics/aquaponics places...the ones that raise fish/tilapia for food. Disgraceful how they keep those poor animals. No living creature should be kept that way. Just because they are often considered "green" businesses, they get away with some horrible practices.