Obama’s Outrageous DOL Rules Will Restrict Minors From Working on Family Farms – Killing Farm Life

gateway ^ | March 21, 2012, | Jim Hoft

[george76]

Barack Obama is committed to killing off the family farm – an American tradition.

For generations children and adults have worked together on the family farm. Those days are over.

Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today introduced the Preserving America’s Family Farm Act, to prevent the Department of Labor (DOL) from enacting its controversial proposed restrictions that would ban children from working on family farms.

Senator Thune spoke out against the Obama Administration’s proposed labor rules for youth who work on farms and ranches on the Senate floor.

The Obama Administration’s rules are so strict they would restrict minors from handling most animals and even from using battery-powered screwdrivers.

[From The Deer Stand]

All I can say is this is unbelievable, but coming from the Obama Administration it’s not surprising. Just another reason to get this batch of socialists out of Washington, D.C. in November.

[opentalk]

The small farmers are getting regulated from all sides. Especially small organic. FDA, EPA and now DOL.

Government attempt to control the food supply , add MIchelle Obama's talk of food deserts. They will look for a ways to control the supply and distribution in the name of justice, fairness or climate change

[elcid1970]

So..... will the feds be sending out spies with binoculars to smoke out underage farm workers? Will they?

[sport]

Ten to fifteen years from now, my FRiend, the SCOTUS will be comprised of obama appointees. If you believe that they will reverse any of obama’s edicts, you are living in a dream world.

[liberalh8ter]

Don't be surprised when they do. A family member of mine had some cows get loose late one night. They passed by his back door on their way toward the silage. He jumped in his truck and escorted them back to where they had broken the fence. Once across, he jumped out of his truck and proceeded to repair the fence by headlight. Suddenly, multiple sets of headlights came flying down his driveway - a back drive that privately led to the back side of his father's farm (the farms were adjoined). They arrested him for shining deer, confiscated his truck and his rifle which was in its holder in the back window of truck.

It took a year to get the charges dropped and several years to get his possessions back.

[tnlibertarian]

A famous quote... revised

I don't see the difference.

[wbill]

I worked on a number of farms as a kid. The most onerous thing I did was picking the dead chickens at a chicken farm.

Didn't do me a bit of harm. In fact, I now have skills that I'm sure all of the metrosexual, citified, neutered bunch of guys I work with wish they had.

Guy I work with recently just paid his lawnmowing service (pay to get your lawn mowed? but that's another story....) 100 bucks to trim a small embankment at his house.

Thinking that maybe his trimmer was broken, or he didn't have one, I offered to let him borrow mine. His reply? "Nah, mine is just fine. I just don't like to do it."

I've seen the "embankment" he had "trimmed". Might take me 15 minutes to do, if I worked slowly and had a hard time starting my trimmer up. Sez me, I'm in the wrong business.

And....I'm cringing at the thought of telling my uncle (who owned one of the farms I worked on) "Nah, I just don't feel like doing that incredibly simple task. Can I just give someone 100 dollars to do it for me?"

[thesearethetimes...]

BFL

[Nickname]

This is what it’s come to. Congress shovels money and “rule making” authority at the executive branch then walks away because they don’t want to be held accountable themselves. It’s easier to be defensive, act outraged and point fingers when what they’ve given away is abused.

[Lady Lucky]

Well, you know the expression, “There but for fortune...” The government has had the power, for many years already, to intervene, to come onto your property with the backing of a judge and the escort of a policeman, to inspect your property and question your parenting and take your child into custody. They now have a few more justifications if they need any, which they don’t.
All it really takes is one person with any comment at all against you. True or untrue. They just phone it to the child protection agency in your area and you are screwed.
Nobody in America is doing a blessed thing to fight this, as far as I can determine. Even judges I’ve discussed it with, are afraid of child protectors.

[redgolum]

Honestly I expected this a long time ago. I remember as a kid an inspector telling my father that “Kids shouldn’t be working around this large equipment”.

[Uncle Miltie]

More laws real people will ignore.

Everyone will just be a lawbreaker, and we’ll all care less about the rule of law.

[Smokin' Joe]

Grandkids still get paid to do chores in our family, but it is mainly because I can spend time doing other things which pay much better. I'm a firm believer in being able to mow your own lawn (much easier with the motorized mowers vs. the old reel types), skin your own dinner (and cook it, too), and when the sad occasion arises, shoot your own dog.

The thing I hated worst was being the 'big kid' who got to catch and secure sheep for my great uncle to shear. Haying was dirty work, but not near so bad, and I didn't mind it, nor planting/cultivating/cutting/spearing/hanging/stripping tobacco. Crabbing, (trot line and crab pots), digging clams, fishing, tonging oysters, hunting deer and waterfowl were just putting food on the table.

I wish I could give my grandkids the same opportunities I had as a kid, but my childhood was long ago and far away.

[printhead]

I read on another thread some time ago to start by eliminating the departments and cabinets that have an “E” in them. Energy, education, environment, endowment and so on. Sounds good to me. Freegards,

[printhead]

Note to self; how about the letter “D” instead? Department of...

[wbill]

Never had to shoot my own dog. Thankfully.

Haying was hard work, but it paid well. I think that I remember logging with my uncle more fondly than it actually was. He had a great stand of hardwood on his farm and we'd put up all of the family's firewood. Would take a weekend in the winter to fell it, limb it, and twitch it out, and a couple of weekends in the late summer (you know, the time between "haying" and "getting the last of the harvest in" to cut split deliver and stack.

But I think that I'd still give my left arm to have one more weekend cutting and splitting, and listening to his stories.

The farm is still in the family, but it isn't worked too hard anymore. The land is rented out, someone else does the haying. They do raise some blueberries on it, though, and home grown firewood is still the cheapest heat in town. I make sure my kids get up there every summer, and I suspect that when they get bigger, they'll learn how to swing a splitting maul and use a two man buck.

[jazusamo]

If the turkey in the WH and his administration are not voted out in November I fear we won’t survive another four years as a Constitutional Republic. Patriots are barely holding on to it now and it’s something that has got to addressed.

[Graewoulf]

” - - - - start by eliminating the departments and cabinets that have an “E” in them. Energy, education, environment, endowment and so on.”

By “and so on” I assume that you mean ENTITLEMENTS!

Thanks for the idea!

[elcid1970]

I used to be skeptical of those who warned that the Homeland Security Act gave too much discretion to LEOs at all levels.

Not anymore. Lots of little dictators out there with fancy badges, guns, and carte blanche from the government.

[familyop]

Susan B. Anthony’s (and her friends’) problem with “child labor” was that the young folks were instrumental in keeping family wealth and increasing family prosperity in those days—even after divorce (father custody). ...kept local bureaucrats from using a bored family member to take everything away from the family.

But now local politicians, appointees and employees can steal a farm or ranch on nothing more than false accusations from busybodies in developments (e.g., animal protection laws including agriculture, HOA queens wanting more taxes and services, etc.). Have fun. Enjoy the slide.