Child Labor

Steve Clodfelter in Illinois posted on Crop Talk the issue of the proposed changes in the child labor laws in agriculture. I posted a letter the other day in my blog 16 inch bin fan that I received from Steve in Iowa.

We need to contact our legislators on this issue as most of us see it as over regulating another aspect of agriculture that most of us do correctly already.

I think the left is using this to "protect the Mexican children in families in the south" that work on farms. I am sure we have all seen some of the coverage on TV of hoeing crews in the south trying to hoe out resistant weeds that are ruining soybean and other crops down there.

I don't see this as a problem on most farms across our country but an act to over regulate an industry already loaded with too many laws and too many rules and not enough common sense.

The only thing I know to do is contact your legislator that current regulations have been working and this change proposed by the Department of Labor is viewed as over regulation and the potential death of 4-H and FFA instruction as we know it today in America.

That is Steve's fear and I know many agriculture teachers and farmers agree. We don't need more regulation. If anything, we need more support of our good 4-H and FFA programs through funding and support and cooperation at the local level.

Farm families are already working closely on these problems and just need support, not banning children from our farms as some view these changes would do.

We have bigger issues on the farm but this one deserves attention also.

Thanks,

Ed Winkle