Department of Labor vs. America's Farm Kids

The Republic- In this Nov. 28, 2011 photo, Luke Muller, 12, talks with his father, Matt Muller, while operating a tractor as they work on their family farm near Martha, Okla. Farm kids have spent generations while performing chores on the family farm. But now the U.S. Department of Labor is proposing regulations that would make many of those activities illegal for some farm kids under age 16.[...] Read more

(AP Photo/The Oklahoman, Nate Billings)

American Thinker- America was built by farmers, and to this day, farming is a generational industry for many. So why are federal agencies, led by President Obama appointees, intent on taking steps that will undermine and ultimately destroy our nation's agricultural heartland?

It's no secret that liberals hold fatty, high-carbohydrate dairy and corn products directly responsible for our nation's obesity rates. They blame farting cows for a depleted ozone layer and consider farming streamlined animal abuse. Yet the government's attempt to effectively ban farm kids from working on their own farms goes beyond outrageous.

Under new standards being advocated by the Labor Department, youths under the age of eighteen would be prohibited from working in hay lofts, giving shots, caring for baby animals, and being in the vicinity of animals whose behavior may be "unpredictable." For the estimated 1.3 million youths living or working on farms, this means no longer being able to perform routine chores if the farm is set up as a corporation or a business partnership. Today, the vast majority of family farms are legally structured in this manner.

Citing agriculture's high fatality rate, uninformed liberal elites have taken it upon themselves to create an image of uneducated, backwards farmers who are too stupid to protect themselves and their children.[...] emphasis mine

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