The comment period on the U.S. Department of Labor's proposed changes to child labor regulations ends Tuesday, Nov. 1. According to Department of Agriculture figures, 104 children per year die from a farm-related injury, and more than 22,000 are injured. Child-safety advocates say the rules are "long overdue" but farm advocates say the proposals show how disconnected the department is from the way family farms operate.
The rules would keep the exemption for work by children in an immediate family, but Peggy Lowe of Harvest Public Media reports, "Most farms are now organized under a corporation that includes multiple members of an extended family — uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, grandparents — and that legal status as a company would mean loss of the family exemption, said Jordan Dux, national affairs coordinator with the Nebraska Farm Bureau." (Lowe photo: MacKenzie Lewis, 15, pulls weed-control plastic up from a watermelon field near Boone, Iowa.)
However, Barry Estabrook, a food journalist who has reported extensively about farm labor, told Lowe that the proposed changes are "timid at best." He said child farmworkers are not protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act, unlike their counterparts in other occupations. "I don’t see it as any more ludicrous to envision a child driving a bulldozer or a back hoe on a construction site than driving a back hoe in the farm fields," he said. "What is the fundamental difference?" Congressional watchdog Public Citizen also supports the changes and is pushing to add regulations about heat stress, Lowe reports.
On the other hand, many are concerned the changes will hurt 4-H and FFA, formerly Future Farmers of America. Meghan Grebner of Brownfield Ag News reports Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman said "It would be a great disservice if young people lose those experiences," because they need to develop life skills offered through 4-H and FFA. Lowe reports that Farm Bureau officials say cutting these programs would "hinder the recruitment of the next generation of farmers and ranchers." (Read more)
However, Barry Estabrook, a food journalist who has reported extensively about farm labor, told Lowe that the proposed changes are "timid at best." He said child farmworkers are not protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act, unlike their counterparts in other occupations. "I don’t see it as any more ludicrous to envision a child driving a bulldozer or a back hoe on a construction site than driving a back hoe in the farm fields," he said. "What is the fundamental difference?" Congressional watchdog Public Citizen also supports the changes and is pushing to add regulations about heat stress, Lowe reports.
On the other hand, many are concerned the changes will hurt 4-H and FFA, formerly Future Farmers of America. Meghan Grebner of Brownfield Ag News reports Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman said "It would be a great disservice if young people lose those experiences," because they need to develop life skills offered through 4-H and FFA. Lowe reports that Farm Bureau officials say cutting these programs would "hinder the recruitment of the next generation of farmers and ranchers." (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment