Tuesday, March 19, AD 2024 6:25am

Nanny State Down on the Farm

 

Proving once again that nothing must be outside of the control of Leviathan, the Obama Labor Department has proposed the following:

A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm  chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress.  But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.

The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that  would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting  them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.

Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing,  marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”

I have lived in rural Illinois all of my life.  My family was not fortunate enough to own a family farm, but I did agricultural labor for cash from the sixth grade on up, through the summer after my first year in law school.  I found out three things from this experience:  1.  I loved earning money;  2.  Farm work was hard and I didn’t want to be doing it for the rest of my life;  3.  Showing up on time and working hard was 90% of doing well on a job.  I benefited quiet a bit from those simple lessons, in addition to getting a lot of exercise and gaining respect for how hard it is to make a living from farming.  Now the federal government has decreed that kids, even in many cases on farms of their own families, should not have these opportunities.   The only possible response to this is for me to once again summon the shade of the late Ray Walston:

 Update:  The Obama administration retreats:

Under pressure from farming advocates in rural communities, and following a report  by The Daily Caller, the Obama administration withdrew a proposed rule Thursday that would have applied  child labor laws to family farms.

Critics complained that the regulation would have drastically changed the  extent to which children could work on farms owned by family members. The U.S.  Department of Labor cited public outcry as the reason for withdrawing the  rule.

Go here to the Daily Caller to read the rest.  You can bet that if Obama is re-elected they will try to push this lunacy through in his second term.  Yet another excellent reason to make certain that this is the first, last and only Obama term.

 

 

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WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:06am

Would this rule simply go into effect? What’s the mechanism here?

Jonathan
Jonathan
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:13am

Donald,

Have you ever gotten into any of the (so called) anti-Federalist papers? There are many good (and telling) passages – one in particular which I think had much more force with the passage of income tax is from Brutus #6 on taxation – http://constitution.org/afp/brutus06.htm – namely:

“This power, exercised without limitation, will introduce itself into every comer of the city, and country — It will wait upon the ladies at their toilett, and will not leave them in any of their domestic concerns; it will accompany them to the ball, the play, and the assembly; it will go with them when they visit, and will, on all occasions, sit beside them in their carriages, nor will it desert them even at church; it will enter the house of every gentleman, watch over his cellar, wait upon his cook in the kitchen, follow the servants into the parlour, preside over the table, and note down all he eats or drinks; it will attend him to his bed-chamber, and watch him while he sleeps; it will take cognizance of the professional man in his office, or his study; it will watch the merchant in the counting-house, or in his store; it will follow the mechanic to his shop, and in his work, and will haunt him in his family, and in his bed; it will be a constant companion of the industrious farmer in all his labour, it will be with him in the house, and in the field, observe the toil of his hands, and the sweat of his brow; it will penetrate into the most obscure cottage; and finally, it will light upon the head of every person in the United States. To all these different classes of people, and in all these circumstances, in which it will attend them, the language in which it will address them, will be GIVE! GIVE!”

Paul W Primavera
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:14am

Anything that teaches personal responsibility and accountability is opposed by the Obama Administration. Any that teaches libertine license without personal responsibility and accountability is not just supported, but encouraged.

“Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.” Romans 1:32

Chris
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:15am

Because destroying what little profitability farms still have and ruining the training of the next generation of farmers is obviously the best way to build up the economy.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:26am

In related news, Farm Fascism erupts like an irritated cyst in Michigan:

http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2012/04/where-oh-where-has-common-sense-gone-communism-anyone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kellythekitchenkop+%28Kelly+the+Kitchen+Kop%29

This is not an isolated incident. The FDA and various state agencies pair up with large-scale producers to quash family farms and dairies on a regular basis in the name of “food safety” even though there isn’t a shred of evidence they can use to support their jackbooted tactics.

Joe Green
Joe Green
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:41am

The legacy of Hamilton and Lincoln lives on. (will be surprised if this gets by the censors).

elm
elm
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 8:12am

Hard work on a family farm gives children a respect for work and a skill for solving problems. No keyholed skills are allowed, they become Jacks of all Trades and are able to cope in good weather and bad. No mamby pambies on the farm. It’s raining, do your chores. It’s snowing, do your chores. It’s Sunday, do your chores. It’s dark, and early, do your chores. It’s a school day, do your chores.

It’s a very practical way to earn an Engineering degree without leaving home.

Bonchamps
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 8:16am

Ah, the letters of Robert Yates, aka Brutus.

He became my favorite “founding father” (anti-founder, perhaps) as I studied early American history.

He was absolutely right about the impossibility of a large republic remaining a republic for very long. Republics that endure for centuries are small, like the Italian city-states. A confederation of republics could theoretically work as well.

We will find out this June if the Constitution is the least bit relevant in actually securing the rights and liberties of the people when the Supreme Court rules on Obamacare. If Obamacare is Constitutional, then anything is. The Wickard v. Filburn case during FDR’s time already pretty much established the theoretical grounds for a command and control economy; Obamacare would be the full fruition of what started then.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 10:11am

As a farm woman all my life, and having raised 6 children, all still living on the farm with their families this is a little ditty we have been fighting ever since BO came into office. The the thing is people, they want the small farmers off the land. They have done everything to make life harder and harder to contend with. We are so regulated, and taxpayer funded that they think they now have these rights. Without our children and their friends and our grandchildren we would never have been able to keep this farm going. Because of their devotion to our way of life they were each given a piece of land to start their lives with if they chose. We never could pay them a regular wage and as I used to tell them, “this is a FAMILY farm”. Not one turned down the acreage. Our oldest is 43 and the youngest is 32 with the middle son and his family running the operation now. If they take this right away from family farmers it will destroy the remaining small farmers left. There is no way we can pay outside help and hang onto the land. All new wealth comes from the land. Who controls the land controls the people. They determine who eats and who doesn’t. In the 1950’s Agriculture Think Tanks were initiated to figure out every conceivable way to “force farmers(ie small) off the land”. One notable quote by Professor Kenneth E Boulding was that “we will squeeze them like toothpast out of a tube”. If this law passes, it will end working with the animals, 4-H, every conceivable farm job there. Our kids have milked cows, fed cows, pigs, beef cattle, chickens and horses since they were at least 5. They have baled hay, combined, worked up the land with every piece of machinery on this farm Our granchildren bring great big football players out here every summer to pitch manure and throw bales. They love it and want to come back. That will all stop. along with the unique opportunity to see what goes on to feed this world. They love to gather around the table at noon, and hear the stories and eat and eat and eat. I don’t think the general population realizes how close we are to losing control of the food supply in this country. It is not normal for 500-8000 cow dairy herds. It is not normal for cattle to be standing with thousands of other cattle being forced fed and shot up with meds to keep them calm and grow them faster. It is not normal for grains to be grown on hundreds of thousands of acres and never rotated or contoured for the health of the land and the plant. This has all been carefully programmed and instituted by every adminstration to seize control of the land and along with it the food supply of this country. Look at Russia, look at any of the Third World countries. They had the capablitiy to take care of their own until the “planners and controllers” took them over. It is here, and this is just the tip of the ice berg. Some of us have outsmarted them and they are really ***!!!! over it. They know this will kill the canary and they can stand wiping the blood of the American food system off their evil hands. Land control= food control=people control=birthcontrol=abortion on demand=death with dignity. It’s all there if you want to study your history. All most farmers have ever wanted is a fair price at the farm gate. Instead we have had nothing but more and more government control. Instead of farmers we became “agri-business people”. Instead of farm animals, we now have “production control units”. It’s pretty darn scary. With this fuel situation every thing you eat is affected. EVERYTHING. I just hope that the American public can rise up and see what we have been hoodwinked with. If you eat, you are involved!

exNOAAman
exNOAAman
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 2:12pm

Jeanne Rohl :
Outstanding comments Jeanne Rohl. May God Bless you and yours.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 3:42pm

It would be an interetsing exercise to see where the “Farm Aid” music folks are on this. *snort*

Mary De Voe
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 4:19pm

My dad used to say: Gold and land, the two things God is not making any more of. Jeanne Rohl, my heart is breaking for you. I am from New Jersey, where the “government” was taking farms at eminent domain at below value with tax payers’ money and reselling the farms to their buddies. The Cornell Dairy Farm, five generations, the Otken farm, four generations and founding members of North Brunswick, and parts of Michael Smith’s farm, three generations. Michale Smith’s farm was a cranberry bog of which the EPA took 40 acres as “wetlands”. These went into housing developments. But wait until the “government” tells you what kind of genetically engineered seeds you will plant (Monsanto). Through Executive Order 13575 Rural Councils Obama has taken the unauthorized authority to take any private property at will without compensation, without the consent of Congress. Cass Sunstein has written many books on making animals sovereign persons and givng them legal status and civil rights. This will enable Obama to seize livestock and further take control of our food chain. It is not coming. It is already here.

elm
elm
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 5:05pm

Jeanne Rohl it amazes me that farmers cannot even grow their own seed. How did this control happen? I grew up in MO, both grands owned farms, small in acreage but large enough to sustain them and enough left over to take to market for a little “egg” money.
I married a farmer/engineer and we farmed the family farm the first year of our marriage. He also was a member of the National Guard, burning the candle at both ends and in the middle. The farm is still in the family. They run 48 row planters via GPS which amazes me, but they are not wealthy by any imagination and probably owe their souls to the company store. I wonder how many more generations of our kin will be farmers. Sad to think.

As of last year we have planted a garden and are considering growing chickens, with maybe a goat thrown in to save on lawn maintenance. It may be a very long winter, even if O loses cause he’ll be like a tiger backed into a corner.

Lord, give us just and reasoning men to represent us.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 6:16pm

“Would this rule simply go into effect? What’s the mechanism here?”

From what I understand of federal rulemaking processes, the answer to your first question is “yes.” When federal agencies promulgate rules, they allow a period of public comment (usually 60 to 90 days) before the rule takes effect, and then they adopt it. Period. A federal agency has no obligation to modify a rule in response to said comment. No one outside an agency, except Congress and the President, can force an agency to revise its rules, and Congress can only do so by changing the federal law underlying the rule in question. (The Blunt Amendment was an attempt to do just that with regard to the HHS mandate.)

At the state level, however, most states (41 or 42 last time I counted) have some kind of oversight agency which reviews regulations of state executive agencies before they take effect. (I work for one, that’s why I know more than I ever wanted to know about rulemaking 🙂 The oversight agency may consist of a committee of legislators, or of other appointed officials. In some states the oversight committee/agency has authority to prevent rules from taking effect unless changes are made; in other states it is merely advisory. If Congress had a similar agency to oversee federal rulemaking and there were Congressmen or Senators from one or more farm states sitting on the committee, chances are this rule would have been nipped in the bud.

Peggy
Peggy
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 7:52pm

Wouldn’t child labor laws apply only if the child draws a pay check?

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 11:06pm

Seems that the Osama Admin has blinked on this one.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 11:07pm
Bonchamps
Thursday, April 26, AD 2012 11:29pm

“The decision to withdraw this rule – including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ – was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms.”

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Turn your back on these people for one moment, and you will lose everything. At least we know they can be swayed by public pressure. At least in some cases.

WK Aiken
WK Aiken
Friday, April 27, AD 2012 7:47am

Thanks, Elaine.

“Lord, give us just and reasoning men to represent us.” If such men exist . . . I believe that “just and reasoning” and “politican” are now mutually exclusive.

Better yet, Lord give us the strength to tear down Leviathan and rely solely on You.

Valentin
Valentin
Friday, April 27, AD 2012 8:34am

I want to see what would happen if a kid would refuse to follow this law, what would they do? arrest him?

Mary De Voe
Friday, April 27, AD 2012 1:10pm

Valentin: They would arrest and charge his parents with violating the rule, child endangerment, unfit parent, they would throw the book at them. The child is not old enough to have informed consent except for abortion and sexual activity, in the eyes of the government.

Jeanne Rohl
Jeanne Rohl
Friday, April 27, AD 2012 3:42pm

Just had to make a few comments. First of all I know all about the “monsanto” devil. I have suffered for many years from chronic leukemia caused by being poisoned by a chemical called “Thimet”(bug killer) and human killer. Monsanto knows of thousands of folks out here who have inhaled this garbage before it was recognized as dangerous and precautions were advised when working with it. My mistake was working fields to the north of property owned by an adverstising executive(from Mo who nevers sees his property) who sends a crew in to plant corn on corn on corn year after year. What takes us several weeks takes them about a day. They dump every kind of chemical on it possible and come back in the fall to harvest. At the time I could smell this smell as it was a windy day and the wind what coming out of the west. That night I could smell a bad smell in my skin. I asked my husband if he could smell this odor and I held my hand out to him(after a shower) and he said, “You smell like Thimet!” It led to one long life of being miserable putting up with every ridiculous ailment. I had never been sick a day in my life! It hasn’t killed me yet but it has made my life pretty miserable. Monsanto will never accept responsibility and recently when lawsuits have made it to the courts the latest judge ruled against the farmers. Monsanto is too important to the world is how I would paraphrase her ruling and I was thinking “people are just collateral damage”. Anyway the privately owned farm land in this country is so minimal now and the number of family type farms are in such peril, which tells me the real food source is in peril. The genetically modified brand of Monsanto is such that it will rule the world and is causing much sickness in many South American countries. Many of these places have pure strains of corn which are being mutanated(my word) by the exposure to cross pollination from the poisoned corn. Children who walk past these huge fields of government or multinational organizations or companie owned are experiencing these diseases as well as sores on their little bodies. We can plant a seed that is not tainted but everyone around us which are mega farms uses the gmo seeds so it makes it hard. So there’s a little of what I know about that. The great migration from the family farm of the 20’s and 30’s was not because of ineffiency of family farms but the realization of these think tankers that it was gonna be darn hard to GET THEM off their farms and only through government coersion would they succeed. The great love of the land and what folks would go through to hang on to it they didn’t expect. Land is power. What else has every war ever been fought over. The great “planners and thinkers of our government and land grant colleges” had to figure out how to shove their progressive ideas into the American system. You talk about your Alinsky, your Soros, these and their forebearers are the defining movement to get the people off the land. Land is power, land is money, land is ultimate control Think of what the land provides(God Almighty) No food, no oil, no gold, no silver, no urnaium, no coal, no natural gas, no fish, no sand, no gravel no water. the list goes on and on. The situation of the food and fiber of this country is in such grave danger. Oh it looks like they pulled back on the labor rule for now but they will keep trying.

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