Posted on 09/23/2004 6:14:50 PM PDT by pickemuphere
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California became the first state Thursday to ban weeding by hand on most farms, saying the work is too backbreaking for laborers.
Under a rule approved by the California Occupational Safety and Health Division, farmworkers, in most cases, will not have to stoop to pull weeds, but will instead be given long-handled tools that will allow them to work without bending over. The rule takes effect within two weeks.
The regulation aims to prevent the “real and substantial risk of back injury” caused by stooping to weed or thin plants by hand, Cal-OSHA said. The workplace-safety agency had no estimate of how many California field hands hurt their backs.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I am curious, what kind of tool can do the job of weeding by hand effectively?
LOL, I thought his was work Americans didn't want to do, so illegals picked up the slack. Now they don't want to do it either? LMAO
Pulling weeds by hand for the last six or seven thousand years was good enough. Now we need to protect day laborers. Honestly, Cal OSHA or whoever came up with this one couldn't be more absurd.
Pulling weeds is the only way to eradicate them. Cutting them with a long handled device will simly allow them to grow back. Using a hoe is much much slower.
Maybe Im dumb, but why not spray the weeds?
Weed spray kills Mexicans. Who's gonna pick the strawberries?
Oh my word...we in NE would be screwed with this law...we walk beans (soy) and kids detassle corn have for decades that's how they make money!
I hope the weed puller dosen't hurt the tender weeds. The enviroment might suffer if it knew the weeds were dying.
The same thing that picks the wheat and corn.
MACHINES.
Few herbicides are that plant specific - if you spray the weeds, you'll often end up killing the plant you're trying to grow.
Thanks, that is a very good reason. :)
All farm labor should be done by inmates. No need for illegal aliens to do it.
I too grown up on a farm... but it was an orchard.... I can't imagine picking all those weeds.... that is just insane. It is unfortunate CAL OSHA has to stick their corrupted nose into the business of ranchers... I suspect it has less to do with bad backs and more to do with total control of the state.... money, all about money.
Hey cant we just eat weeds? I think it would save a lot of this time on this controversy(contrevesy if you are Richard Quest).
The question still remains how to get the weeds from the ground to the dinner table?
Oh, but then we will need a lot of mexicans to pull the weeds so we can eat them.
"Who's gonna pick the strawberries?"
Don't give Cal OSHA ideas, strawberries will have to picked with a long handled tool next.
OSHA could care less that they are all going to be squashed from now on.
From my experience from pulling weeds on the farm, I can tell you that it would be very hard for any device to work as well as hands. You can tell when the weed is about to break when you have tactile contact, not with a metal device. Breaking the weed off is as bad as cutting it. It'll just sprout and grow back.
I've never seen a strawberry picking machine before.
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