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: Rural Kids, Parents Angry About Labor Department Rule Banning Farm Chores
My friend said that this isn’t true. As I read some of the comments above, it looks like the ruling was once preventing 4-H, but push-back made them change it? Is that right? Here are my friend’s comments.
Well you will be glad to know that this is not true. “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.” The process for this rule was not an Obama idea. It began over ten years ago. As for 4-H, remember, the rule addresses work-for-hire. Not “chores” but employment by a non-family farm. And not just any work but work that is classified as hazardous. And youth younger than 16 can be hired (paid) for farm work if they are classified as a “student-learner” in a “bona fide cooperative vocational program.
moreIs The Obama Administration Sticking Its Nose Into Farm Chores? ·
This still limits kids who want to work for a grandparent, aunt, uncle or neighbor, from things like staking hay, operating tractors, etc., or am I missing something?
What about a farm that is not directly owned by the parents but is in an LLC or S-corp for tax purposes. As I said above, I don’t buy the government’s spin on this proposed rule at all. They are just trying to get it through and then they can do as they like with the interpretation.
Sarah, I think you might be confusing the Obama administration with the old Bush administrations and others like them. Obama is trying really hard to make right what those guys did to us and our American system. Are you sure you know what you’re saying? The article you posted doesn’t seem to line up with the truth of the situation at all. Where are you on all this? I can see from your site that you really want people to be physically healthy. But are you considering the damage you can do when you misquote the very things that are the topic of your articles? Are you that sure that you’re right about the things you write about? How much research do you actually do or are you quoting someone else who is voicing an opinion, not the truth? This is not an attack. We simply need to stick to the truth. Unless we have some other agenda.
Two thoughts: he who controls the food, controls the people. Second: when we allow the government to continuously pump out new legislation “for our own safety”, we have let them strip our personal liberties away bit by bit.
Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
Five Facts about the Proposed Child Labor in Agriculture Rule
Fact # 1: The proposed Child Labor in Agriculture rule will not prohibit all people under the age of 18 from working on a farm.
The proposed rule would not change any of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum age standards for agricultural employment. Under the FLSA, the legal age to be employed on a farm without restrictions is 16. The FLSA also allows children between the ages of 12 and 15 years, under certain conditions, to be employed outside of school hours to perform nonhazardous jobs on farms. Children under the age of 12 may be employed with parental permission on very small farms to perform nonhazardous jobs outside of school hours.
Young people can be employed to perform many jobs on the farm — and this would be true even if the proposed rule were adopted as written. The proposed rule would, however, prohibit the employment of workers under the age of 18 in nonagricultural occupations in the farm-product raw materials wholesale trade industries. Prohibited establishments would include country grain elevators, grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, feed yards, stockyard, livestock exchanges, and livestock auctions not on a farm or used solely by a single farmer. What these locations have in common is that many workers, including children, have suffered occupational deaths or serious injuries working in these facilities over the last few years.
Fact # 2: The proposed rule would not eliminate the parental exemption for owners/operators of a family farm.
The parental exemption for the owner or operator of a farm is statutory and cannot be eliminated through the regulatory process. A child of any age may perform any job, even hazardous work, at any age at any time on a farm owned by his or her parent. A child of any age whose parent operates a farm may also perform any task, even hazardous jobs, on that farm but only outside of school hours. So for children working on farms that are registered as LLCs, but operated solely by their parents, the parental exemption would still apply.
Fact # 3: This proposed regulation will not eliminate 4-H and FFA programs.
The Department of Labor fully supports the important contributions both 4-H and the FFA make toward developing our children. The proposed rule would in no way prohibit a child from raising or caring for an animal in a non-employment situation – even if the animal were housed on a working farm – as long as he or she is not hired or “employed” to work with the animal. In such a situation, the child is not acting as an “employee” and is not governed by the child labor regulations. And there is nothing in the proposed rule that would prevent a child from being employed to work with animals other than in those specific situations identified in the proposal as particularly hazardous.
Fact # 4: Under the proposed rule, children will still be able to help neighbors in need of help.
In order for the child labor provisions of the FLSA to apply, there must first be an employer/employee relationship. The lone act of helping a neighbor round up loose cattle who have broken out of their fencing, for example, generally would not establish an employer/employee relationship.
Fact # 5: Children will still be able to take animals to the county fair or to market.
A child who raises and cares for his or her animal — for example, as part of a 4-H project — is not being employed by anyone, and thus is outside the coverage of the FLSA. Even if the child needs to rent space from a farm, the animal is not part of the farm’s business and with regard to the care of the animal no employer/employee relationship exists, so the child labor provisions would not apply. Likewise, there would be no problem with taking the animal to the county fair or to market, since the child is doing this on his/her own behalf — not on behalf of an employer. The proposed prohibitions would apply only if the child was an employee of the exchange or auction.
Employee has quite a variable definition these days … don’t buy the government spin which is simple backpedaling based on the huge public outcry yesterday when this news broke. Just trying to soothe people back into slumber and compliance so the rule sails through and then the “butt of a gun to your gut” interpretation comes later.
Case in point .. I called the Michigan Governor’s Office 2 weeks ago about the pig killing rule that was to go into effect April 1. I was told by one of the Governor’s staffers on the phone that the state NEVER would go onto a farm and kill animals. That this was just the public blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Sound familiar? Next thing I know, the state has indeed gone onto a farmer’s property and forced him to shoot his own animals .. baby piglets and all.
I don’t believe a thing the DOL says about the interpretation of this proposed rule and what it does and doesn’t cover. It’s all spin and a power grab underneath it all. They could change it all tomorrow on a whim.
My question is this: When is America going to stand up to unjust laws by civil disobedience. Seems it is long overdue!
Thank you for blogging about this! If nobody cares or speaks out than we deserve to lose our freedoms. Please everyone vote this man out of office. If the health care billed is allowed to move forward . . you better believe there will be forced vaccinations!
…and the communist agenda of the dumbing down of America continues. And the agenda of more government….
Best news I’ve seen in awhile. We may yet be saved:
http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-has-been-quietly-piling-up-delegates-brokered-convention/
Yes!
Disturbing to say the least. Our family fled from post-Communist Russia and now the U.S. is becoming awfully similar. Love your sarcasm! Parents, please PLEASE check out parentalrights.org, pretty soon we will have no say about anything regarding our own children, the government will make all decisions for us! Please sign the petition at ParentalRights.org and get involved!
unbelievable…don’t even get me started on the crazy rules in our government…thank you for sharing this with us…
Details to clarify on the link below.
Does not mention the fact that the regulation gives the Secretary power to ban just about every work activity. All she has to do is declare it “hazardous”.