/johnny
Just move them to the pot farms. Problem solved. Lets see. Vilify a legal product. Push with pride an illegal (still in most places) product. Wonder what the studies will show in 50 years about chronic pot usage. That is if anybody cares to look in to it. Dude. Pass me another one.
Fact is, there are child labor laws. The other fact is that there are families in this country who need their kids to work in some capacity. When my Father was little in the 30’s, all 11 of his brothers and sisters worked to help the family.
Al Gore was the chief witness?
Gee, working in the family business in now a crime. Whodathunkit?
Family farms. BFD. Some of the finest, most hard working adults I am friends with were raised on tobacco farms.
Everyone of them started working as kids and everyone of them got tobacco-sick at one point or another.
Tobacco farmers are a dying breed. Too many sold out or are selling out.
It's a good thing that the weenies at "Human Rights Watch" never saw me tossing around heavy hay bales into my neighbor's barn when I was a kid. Between the dangerous machinery and lousy working conditions, they'd all have had heart attacks.
I lived. Made pretty good money (for a 12-year-old) too. And, it taught me that working with my head instead of my back was a whole lot easier.
And don't get me started on the dangers of doing firewood in the fall and winter. :-)
William Flax
Oh my god...as a 10 year old, my friend asked me if I wanted to pick tobacco for his dad. I said OK and it was hard work. The cheesecloth of the shade grown tobacco caused it to be hot, but it was nice. After we did 6 hours, we jumped into the pond.
Today, half of the farm grows corn... the other half is homes. Working build character...early work is best.