Cultivating Tobacco Harmful to Farm Kids? Labor Secretary Under Fire for ‘Overly Broad’ Regulati

Cultivating Tobacco Harmful to Farm Kids? Labor Secretary Under Fire for ‘Overly Broad’ Regulations


Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been "thinking out loud" it seems.

She was questioned in front of a Congressional hearing about
The Labor Department's proposals for farm labor reforms.

(CNSNews.com) – Labor Secretary Hilda Solis faced congressional opposition Wednesday over the Obama administration’s proposed regulations that would curtail what chores children are allowed to do on their own family’s farm.

Among other things, the Labor Department wants to bar children under age 16 from participating in the cultivation, harvest and curing of tobacco; operating almost all “power-driven” equipment; and working with animals in feed lots, grain silos, stockyards, or livestock auctions.............

Farm Labor (includes a video)

In the testamony, Ms. Solis seems to be continually blinking her eyes as she speaks ????

As proposed, the new rules would prohibit workers under age 16 from:

-- Working in feed lots, grain silos, stockyards, or livestock auctions.

-- Participating in the cultivation or harvest of tobacco.

-- Handling animals and pesticides, working in timber operations, and transporting farm product raw materials.

-- Operating “almost all power-driven equipment.”

-- Using electronic devices – including communication devices – while operating power-driven equipment.

The regulations would exempt children working on farms owned by their parents – but not children working on farms owned by other relatives. (The latter provision is being reconsidered by the Labor Department.)

(U.S. DOL page)
US Labor Department proposes updates to child labor regulations


What is the Agenda with this ??

I suspect good intentions, which of course flops quite often.

I used to grow my own tobacco for personal use. I won't lie, when you spend enough time touching the leaves without gloves, you do feel a little bit off and queasy.

Not sure what the other stuff is about...grain silos and whatnot..perhaps a actual farmer can weigh in and illuminate.

I think its a conspiracy!

Actually, I do. I think it is another way for Monsanto to keep farming in the corporate family and out of the public's hands.
We wouldn't want to have the average person having the ability to farm and grow food, or raise livestock. I mean what would the world be if just anyone could provide for themselves and their family?

If laws keep the family from helping then there is not a way for the family to farm by themselves. They would need to hire people and pay all the federal taxes and wages that having employees entails.
Thereby keeping farming in the corporate hands and out of the hands of the individual.
We should just keep to our backyard gardens and leave the real production of food to the corporate giants.

reply to post by MissPoovey


Your average "Family" farm cannot afford to hire others to work it.

My Dad sent me to my uncles farm every summer while he was in the Military. After he retired, he kept up the practice even though we lived only miles away, and added weekends to the list.

Maybe I was underfoot to much?

But I learned many valuable lessons that I carry to this day. Like ensuring you have good ventilation while cleaning out a silo. I felt deathly ill for three days.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by MissPoovey

 

Your average "Family" farm cannot afford to hire others to work it.

That is Exactly my point. Get rid of the kids and relatives working and the family farm becomes extinct.
...or more so.

Originally posted by SaturnFX

I used to grow my own tobacco for personal use. I won't lie, when you spend enough time touching the leaves without gloves, you do feel a little bit off and queasy.

Accurate. It absorbs through the skin. Same reason chewing tobacco gives a buzz through the lining of the cheek. It has an even greater effect on kids...lower body weight etc.

Kids shouldn't be harvesting tobacco. It's most dangerous after it rains when the nicotine can most easily be absorbed. Doctors in the south call it "Green Tobacco Sickness" where you get a huge dose of nicotine at one time. I remember one study that showed kids after harvest had an amount of nicotine equivelant to 50 ciggeretes in his sytem. At those levels the nicotine can do some premanent damage to brain development.

I grow my own too, even though I don't smoke it. My hubby smokes but I like that it draws all the aphids off all my other plants - They all seem to have the mindset "why eat anything else when you can have tobacco? It's better than ROSES even!"

There are farms in South America and such that have had kids working in tobacco fields. The whole idea of a tobacco field is wrong. Tobacco should be grown in patches. A patch here, a patch there - everywhere.

My son never messed with any of it, but he's 16 now. You gotta watch the govt. regulation on your kids. It's getting to where people with kids are the most oppressed people there are - anything you do, anything you say - a neighbor not liking you, a ticked off customer or a competitor reporting you just to get you - all it takes is a phone call and you're under a microscope. When you have and love your kids, someone having the authority to take them away from you is BIG time control.

This has nothing to do with Tobacco what this is about what millions of Americans kids "doing chores" around the home,farm whatever that has benefits that instill a work ethic from early on.

Kids help out around the home/farm they are active instead sit in front of their game consoles and computers getting fat and lazy.

Damn i was driving lawn mowers and tractors before i ever had my license and spending hours outside doing something worthwhile.

Cradle to grave parenting/nanny state.

I grow tobacco to kill aphids and other bugs in the garden. It attracts humming birds, and will grow like a weed if you let it go.

All the kids I knew that grew up on farms were driving the tractors by age 11, driving the pick-up around the farm, and generally driving well before age 16. These regs want to put a stop to all that. It's all just more authoritarian BS. Government wants to turn the US into a bunch of wussies dependent on their nanny government to wipe their noses and backsides. Don't let it get any worse.

reply to post by eywadevotee


I know! I saw someone selling someonline with this little pot they were saying it could stay in. My husband I were laughing, like, when that plant is 4 feet tall, it's going to fall right over in that little pot. We were wondering if that dude had ever actually grown any before.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by MissPoovey

 

Your average "Family" farm cannot afford to hire others to work it.

My Dad sent me to my uncles farm every summer while he was in the Military. After he retired, he kept up the practice even though we lived only miles away, and added weekends to the list.

Maybe I was underfoot to much?

But I learned many valuable lessons that I carry to this day. Like ensuring you have good ventilation while cleaning out a silo. I felt deathly ill for three days.

Maybe that is a good thing for "family" farms to go extinct if they require the usage of child labor. Were you paid even half of minimum wage? Heck where you paid anything?

It is a damnable situation America's youth is in. On the left you have child abusers who want to intentionally dumb down the youth. So as to make their "revolution" happen easier. Then on the right you have child abusers who advocate teaching children a lesson via the school of hard knocks by exploiting them.

Your attitude is common among victims of hazing rituals, who they themselves decide to continue such barbarism.

The only real exemption I could see, is if the children involved in maintaining the farm will inherit it, or intend to own their own farm(with parents/relative farmers help). Let cheapskate child abusers go bust.

-

The one thing I loathe about this website is the fact that yous can come up with a million and one different theories but miss the writing on the wall 99% of the time.

This has to do with illegal immigrant child labor. As ending the practice above will end the practice below. It would be akin to an industrial factory hiring a nine year old. Doesn't matter if the kid is a Citizen or an invader, no one in their right mind would want to be caught employing a nine year old.

reply to post by korathin


Family farms are just that..."Family Farms."

A family trying to make a living and provide for their own.

A farm requires hard work and sweat to make it work. If the family wants to keep the land....then damn skippy they are going to put the children to work once they are of age and the lessons will progress from there.

This is just common sense.

"Your attitude is common among victims of hazing rituals, who they themselves decide to continue such barbarism."

Well then, go flip burgers. That should suit you.

Living the life on a farm has been a invaluable experiance for me. I know how to build things, fix things and actually put food on the table. But I guess you are content to go your local grocery market....but wait!

Where did that food come from?

Originally posted by korathin
Then on the right you have child abusers who advocate teaching children a lesson via the school of hard knocks by exploiting them.

Exploiting? Let me teach you a new word...

Contributing - The act of not laying around the house all day, with a video game controller in hand, while both parents work their asses off all day; especially useful in learning responsibility and a sense of accomplishment; necessary for providing the latest clothing designs, video games, television, etc. children believe they need to achieve peer recognition.

reply to post by xuenchen
I wounder what happens when the kids aren't properly explained not to chew on this.