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Vilsack weighs in on child labor proposal

While the ag community is speaking out against new proposed federal regulations on child labor – US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack weighs in. On the USDA blog, the Secretary says that “it’s important to know” that the Department of Labor “is not proposing any changes to how a son or daughter can help on their family farm.” Further, Vilsack wrote on December 12th, “there is nothing in the proposed rule that affects the ability of parents and families to assign chores and tasks to their children.”

Vilsack says the proposed rule “respects the various ways that farms are structured in rural America, including partnerships and LLC’s.” Vilsack says the Labor Department is considering ways “to simply protect the safety of children hired to work on a farm.”

Vilsack says he’s hoping to clear up the “confusion and concern” in Rural America about the proposals adding that statistics show “while only 4 percent of working youth are in the agriculture sector, 40 percent of fatalities of working kids are associated with machines, equipment, or facilities related to agriculture.”

American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman has told Brownfield that the proposed changes to federal child labor laws are the latest example of federal regulatory overreach – which he says is the overall biggest threat to U.S. agriculture.

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  When was the last time a government agency actually listened to the voters and changed/dropped their plans for a new law? I’m starting to think the job of the federal government is to regulate the people into slavery. US agriculture is the last bastion of independent thinking, personal responsibility, and pride is a job well done. Every liberal department/organization have their sights set on the American farmer from the IRS, OSHA, EPA, USDA, right on down to HSUS. All we do is provide food and fiber for this country and the world. Can’t you just leave us alone and let us do our job?

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  It would be very interesting to look at causes of death/injury of all those between ages of 10 & 16…. and see where death/injury in farm related accidents falls. Lets see: sports, car accidents, etc might actually have higher incidence….. accidents in “working kids” compared to accidents in “nonworking kids.” Since I live in the small city…. wonder how that compares to the violence and fatalities among the teens in the city in our culture…. just a thought!

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