[pickemuphere]

Mixed feelings on this one... Having grown up on a farm, I have sympathy for anyone who has to weed for long periods of time. It is indeed backbreaking labor.

[rawhide]

I am curious, what kind of tool can do the job of weeding by hand effectively?

[DoughtyOne]

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.

[Jewels1091]

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!

[poweqi]

I hope the weed puller dosen't hurt the tender weeds. The enviroment might suffer if it knew the weeds were dying.

[Porterville]

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.

[Atlas Sneezed]

SO QUIT!

[Damifino]

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)

[arjay]

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.

[Uncle Hal]

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.

[BJungNan]

It could be worse, try bending over while standing in water all day.

[Born to Conserve]

Weed picking robots, they are easily producible.

They were also more expensive than laborers, until now.

Say hello to Wendy Weeder. She works 24/7 for nothing.

Once again the bleeding hearts shoot themselves in their collective foot.

[sandbar]

This is no different than OSHA requiring hard hats on some construction sites. I don't see anything wrong with it and in my opinion, unless the farmer is hiring illegals, it would SAVE them money in workers compensation claims for injured backs.

[ApplegateRanch]

At least they didn't demand the farmers eschew the operation altogether, and order them to only use "weed-eating" geese.

[quantim]

Mixed feelings on this one...

Why mixed feelings?  It's called a job!

[antceecee]

NANNY GOVERNMENT STRIKES AGAIN!!!
Too bad we don't have the brains or stamina our forefathers (and mothers) had, what a sorry bunch of sissies.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

The new rule says farms cannot require workers to weed by hand for extended periods of time unless they can show that long-handled tools are not effective. If the workers must hand-weed, they must be given longer breaks, and there are restrictions on how much time they must spend toiling at the task.

Well, well, well. It appears that they really DON'T ban them, it just makes the farm go through a whole lot of effort to prove the measures are necessary.. I also see where "organic" farms are exempt..