Sarah Palin was almost right this time. She took to Facebook criticizing the Obama administration for a new Labor Department regulation that prohibits those under age 16 from working on farms. Doesn't sound so bad.
Palin stated, "This is more overreach of the federal government with many negative overtones." She went on to say that the new regulations would "prevent children from working on our own family farms." Some liberals may even agree that a government body telling parents they cannot allow their own children to work on the family farm is a bit of an overreach.
But, as usually, the conservative rhetoric is just plain wrong. This is typical of the conservative talking-heads.
The regulation does not prevent kids from working on the family farm. The new regulations have been in the works for a long time now. What they do is re-define farm jobs that can be done by 16-year-olds and younger. Those minors can no longer harvest or cure tobacco, work in manure pits, or handle pesticide.
Why would you want your 13- or 14- or 15-year-old working with pesticides? What are the conservatives afraid of -- that this will create more jobs for adult, immigrant workers?
This is yet another example of how the right jumps on a piece of information and spins it to get their supporters all riled up about it when it's not the complete truth. Sarah Palin should stay in Alaska and take up knitting or something and stay off Facebook.
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Comments: 34 ( 5 removed by Lora Covrett )
It would also "prohibit farmworkers under 16 from operating almost all power-driven equipment."
Atta gut the best apprenticeship a kid could get. Sheer stupidity. Well rejected.
I was working on or around machinery well before my teens. Apparently I'm lucky to be alive. And the other millions of farm kids. What nonsense.
Absurd.
Kinda like Sarah's remark on "death panels?"
There's that absurd remark again.
That's farming.
Don't know about tobacco. Don't know if there are true dangers to turning the tobacco over in the drying process. I think that was just put in their to beat on the tobacco industry more.
Farms now are large multi acre corporative conglomerates owned by absentee company heads and operated by hired managers. They are now mostly managed by college educated professionals, with a large hired staff of workers who are well versed in livestock and produce management. Such corporation owned farms also employ numerous extra workers as they are needed in the hothouses as stock planters and in the fields as produce pickers. However, these jobs are also disappearing on many of these new age farms as more and more machinery is being employed to do the work. Machinery which is quickly replacing many of the field and hothouse workers by eliminating their jobs.
This is not to imply that all family farms have disappeared completely. But, is to clarify, that the family farms of today, are those which are of but a few acres of staple crops and almost no animals being raised for commercial profit. Food crops and animals which are mostly being grown for the families own consumption and/or to be sold at nearby public farmers markets on Saturday mornings. They no longer grow nor raise produce and animals for sale to local supermarkets or at buyer auctions, as was done in the past.
As to the growing of tobacco. The industry has mostly gone into the mechanized business of growing and cultivating the crops from strat to harvest. However, there is still the hiring of high school workers to perform what is locally referred to as "cropping bacca". Which is the gathering of ripened leaf tobacco by hand from the stalks of the mother plant. This cropping is done anywhere from 3 to 5 times during the growing season, depending on the profitable maturity of the individual plants. In my area, school boys in the 10 - 12 grades are usually hired for this job on an as needed basis. It's good weekend spending money for the boys, but it does have it's healthwise draw backs. {i.e.} cropping tobacco brings the youth age workers in direct contact with the plants which are after-all, known to be hazardest to a persons health. Both from handling the leaves, having the bacca juice drip on their body and coming in physical contact with the various insect and disease abating and retardant chemicals which are sprayed on the plant throughtout it's growth, from 3 inch sprigs in the hothouse to full grown 5 foot plants in the field.
Hope my comments help readers to understand the farming industry of today.
Family farms have been penalized for raising crops for thier own use since the 1930's. A farmer saved seed from prior year crops, planted it, and harvested it.
He had his own stone mill to grind it.
His spouse used it to make bread for their own family.
The government decided it interfered with "interstate commerce" because he did NOT purchase or sell anything, which had an impact on farmers in other states.
They burnt his crops, seeds, and levied fines.
Going forward, the family farm was destroyed by the Farmers Home Loan Administration.
Under the guise of “helping”, they garnered power, and took control, bankrupting millions of people.
That is why we are left with primarily large corporate farms.
They are easier to control, via regulation, to plant what, when and how the Government wants.
It was attempted through crop subsidies, and land banks (paying to raise a specific crop, and paying to raise no crop).
Health risks???? Are you really so naïve as to think simply handling a tobacco leaf is harmful, while “round-up ready” corn and beans is safe??????
It is one more display of control.
Also, when will the obsession with all things Palin end with you creeps?
It's my ghost writer that makes all the spelling errors and factual errors in my posts and comments. :)
Now, having said that, I think allowing our children to work part time with a job that is considered safe and appropriate for the child is a good learning experience, and it is a good way to teach them individual responsibility. There is a vast difference between a child working part time to earn a little spending money than to work in a situation where they are losing focus on simply being a child and getting their education and all else that is a part of the childhood experience. While they are still in school, their main focus should be to remain in school, and the work should not interfere with that focus...
I agree, Vic. And when I said "some liberals" in the post, I meant me. I actually agreed with Sarah Palin for once (shocking, right?) -- but as it turns out, her statements were a little less than correct.
I really don't understand how it got to be such a big deal. I think the regulation should have passed. We should protect kids from operating machinery and handling pesticide, etc.
I helped out bailing hay when I was a teenager and got a little money for it. And I pushed wheelbarrows full of pig poop out of the barn for my dad.
It's political pandering is why Obama backed away from pushing this legislation through. He's already pissed off the right about the birth control issue, he backed off this because there were only a couple new restrictions and apparently they are working out the agreements locally with farm owners. I need to look that up myself to see what's actually happening.
I actually think it's a little bit crazy that this created such a media storm -- so much so that they had to pull back on going through with it.
But the least likely to do so is your own parents. If that's not the case, you got worse problems than doing your chores. I was doing all of these "hazardous" tasks by 12 (well, not the tobacco) under the tutelage of my patient and careful father. I was happy and proud to learn and contribute. That's farm life.
Obama was almost right about the farm, the caveat being if Lora's right about picking his battles. If he just plans to institute these intrusive and unnecessary regs after the election, boo on him. B+ today. Leave the farmers alone, the best people to make the best choices for our kids are called mom and dad.
NERF EVERYTHING NOW!
A neft czar would be payed in nerf money...
And yes, I did try to say it three times really fast...I will post the results at a later date...LOL
I transported a dog on a plane before...below deck...and I felt bad. When I picked her up in baggage claim she was quiet (which she usually is not) and shaking (not sure if it was fear or relief or happiness).
I cannot imagine every tying either one of them to the top of my vehicle.