It could be worse, try bending over while standing in water all day.
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 ...
The same thing that picks the wheat and corn.
MACHINES.
Great the seed companies can develop strawberries as tough as corn or wheat, no trouble, but how are you gonna get people to eat them?
So9
SO QUIT!
Confounded, the liberals call a summit and hold a round table discussion; "The chirpractic Benefits of Atrazine" Dr. Richard Bob emerged beaming from the inclusive event to giddily announce that no relevent conclusions had been drawn.
(I know the feeling man, I worked a farm when I was kid too. Picking up rocks was my bane)
Well, I've heard of smoking the weeds but never eating the weeds. That is not a job for the weak minded.
One more thing...
Lots of countries grow stuff, and do not "enjoy" the illegal population to harvest FOR them. Soooooooo, they have machines, at the ready.. Now. Keep pushing, and this B.S. deal with NEEDING to match workers with work, will plummet.
Ever heard of grapes dried on the vine, and harvested by machine?? Hmmmmmm???
It will save Millions upon Millions of labor dollars, done cheaper, and we don't have to support the babies from the machines.
Me and my family, at the U-pick
Ducks and snails
A hoe can come very, very close to mimicking the work of the hands -- especially when used by a pro. I agree that seedlings are best weeded by hand (this was my chore) but everything else gets the hoe or cultivator.
I wonder what would have happened if we would have had some government agency on hand at Plymouth to tell the new settlers that they could not do any backbreaking labor?
Our country could never have been settled by people with this mindset. It kind of makes me wonder what happened to the pioneering spirit of those who moved out west. One would think they would have retained the hardworking free spirit of the original settlers. Guess not.
I assume Arnold signed this into law. I hire a Mexican to pull weeds in my yard by hand. Am I in trouble? If so I guess my wife will have to do it.
Necessity is the mother of invention. If you can figure out how to put music on a CD you can damn well figure out how to pick strawberries with a machine.
And don't run the 'cheap lettuce' argument here.....after you add in the schooling, medicating, and incarcerating of the illegals that head of lettuce costs a fortune.
Which raises the question; why haven't employers provided these tools already? The initial investment? (which could be substantial)
It could be worse, try bending over while standing in water all day.
Machines pick and pack our tomatos, that is why we have to grow our own or find a boutique grower of heirloom varieties somewhere to get an edible tomato.
Mechanization works fine with crops that are already sturdy enough to survive, but no one has yet figured out how to pick delicates mechanically and they have been selling machines to supposedly do it for 50 years.
So9
A hoe. In high school I could weed a 6 foot by ten mile area in a day (all for minimum wage!). If you know how to use them, a good hoe can pull a weed out by the roots and drop it wherever you want. The trick is to hook the weed around the base of the rod by giving the hoe a half twist and then using the inverted hoe as a lever. It gets easy after your millionth weed!
Wimpy strawberries doesn't justify letting in illegals to do the job. Cut out welfare and let the uneducated pick strawberries. The higher cost of employing Americans will motivate somebody to invent a strawberry picker.
It is a regulation handed down by California OHSA, not a law.
Sure sounds like you will be in trouble in the future if you live in California and hire someone to pull weeds.
Who cares strawberrys suck. I hate the damn things. Not joking, they taste about as good as okra.
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