The U.S. Department of Labor wants to make it illegal for children under the age of 16 to work on a farm.
If passed, this could change the face of America’s family farms and ranches.
The proposed regulations would make it illegal to allow a child under the age of 16 to do all of the following:
1. Herd animals on horseback;
2. Sort animals on horseback;
3. Operate any equipment;
4. Operate any vehicle, tractor, feed truck, ATV;
5. Operate any tool that is not powered by hand;
6. The list goes on.
So yes, if passed, this means that it would be illegal for our Little Lady to help her Grandpa move cattle. It would be illegal for her to help her Grandpa brand calves. Like I said previously, the list goes on and on.
Activities that we all enjoyed participating in while growing up on a farm or ranch would become illegal, just to satisfy the Washington bureaucrats who claim that they are “protecting” our children, when they in fact have no idea what a huge negative impact this would have on multi-generational farming and ranching families.
I will close with a quote that I saw and loved from another blogger on the subject, "What does our government have against teaching children the value of family, responsibility and a strong work ethic?"
Please visit www.regulations.gov and type WHD-2011-0001-0001 in the search tool to comment on the proposed rule.
*Edit...It is important to note that to my understanding, yes, children could continue to work for their parents, but ONLY directly under their parent's supervision, and not for example, their grandparents. That is why, in my opinion, this proposed law is such a threat to multi-generational family farms and ranches.
6 comments:
Are you kidding me? That is ridiculous!
I know Ellen, it's really scary.
we heard about that two, but from what my grandpa has read, it's only for hired hands, if the parents own the farm, then it's ok for their children to work it.
Manda, thanks for reading and thanks for the comment. You bring up a great point and something I should have clarified in my post. To my understanding, yes, you are correct, children could continue to work for their parents, but ONLY directly under their parent's supervision, and not for example, their grandparents. That is why, in my opinion, this proposed law is such a threat to multi-generational family farms and ranches.
Emily-When I was in D.C. earlier in October discussing this with legislators, this is what we were told: the kids can only work for their parents, not grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, etc. They also could not enter a pen with a cow/cows if said animal(s)could become dangerous. That one really gets me. We all know any animal at any given time can become dangerous. Not only will our western way of life be endangered, think also of the effect it would have on FFA and 4-H. Basically those two organizations would be ended. Thanks for writing this. We in the ag industry need to band tightly to fight this.
Jean, thanks for the good additional information. It would be a complete shame to see our 4-H and FFA programs ended.
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