Federal rewrite of labor laws causing a flap down on the farm (Feds, Feds, Feds, Feds..Feds, Feds..)

Washington Times ^ | December 5, 2011 | Andrea Billups

[Cincinatus' Wife]

LANSING, Mich. — Sparking outrage across the country’s rural heartland, the Obama administration is proposing rules to curb the ability of children on farms to engage in “corn sex” for pay.

Farmers call it corn detasseling, a time-honored but physically demanding chore designed to promote cross-pollination in the field. For decades it has been a way for teens to earn extra spending money — and forge some good-natured field hand camaraderie — for a few weeks each summer.

The Obama administration is considering revisions to federal agricultural work rules that effectively would bar teens younger than 16 from engaging in a number of traditional chores for pay — including detasseling.

Opponents of the rules across the Farm Belt argue that they are in part an attack on a way of life, one foreign to Beltway bureaucrats and one that should be encouraged in an era of rising childhood obesity rates and increasingly sedentary lifestyles.

“We need more young farmers in Oklahoma, not less. We need more young people who know where their food comes from, not less,” Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and state Agriculture Secretary Jim Reese said in a Nov. 30 letter to Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis.

“Any policy that would hinder the opportunities of young Americans to experience life in our agricultural communities is misguided indeed.”

The American Farm Bureau is heading a coalition of more than 70 agriculture organizations that have petitioned the Labor Department in Washington to reconsider what would be the first major rewrite of farm labor standards since the 1970s.

......“At first I thought it was a joke,” Iowa corn farmer Henry Hemminghaus recently said....“It would eliminate 40 [percent] to 70 percent of my workforce. It would probably eliminate about 1,200 out of the 2,000 kids I hire.”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

EPA Regulations Cost Jobs and Cause Blackouts (Gov.Perry's battle with the Feds) "Reports indicate that the predominant costs of implementing the Environmental Protection Agency’s new "green" economy regulations are job loss (as coal plants are forced to close) and mass blackouts.

President Obama admitted in a 2008 interview that he is intent on shutting down the U.S. coal industry:

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

A press release from GOP candidate Rick Perry's campaign claims the the Clean Air Act is specifically designed to reconfigure America's energy landscape and cause job losses. It states:

The president's ideologically driven objectives on greenhouse gases are so extreme, in fact, that the EPA recently admitted it would require 230,000 new federal bureaucrats to fully implement the terms of the Clean Air Act. The agency's admission confirms that the Clean Air Act was never intended to apply to greenhouse gases. Rather than simply concede that fact, the Obama administration has attempted to rewrite the Clean Air Act to satisfy its radical agenda of regulating the entire economy based on emissions.".....

[Jonty30]

First step to unionization of farm hands?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

SEIU is getting it’s hooks into home childcare — like a vampire searching for ever more blood to feed Federal control and dictate to the people.

[SatinDoll]

The purpose of such regulations is to drive people off of rural lands. It is the folks in rural areas who are predominately conservative.

The socialists want everyone dependent on government - no exceptions.

[spokeshave]

Stalin, Castro, Mao and Pol Pol would all be proud.

[spokeshave]

2nd Pol = Pot

[dennisw]

WORK ETHIC
These are good jobs for rural teenagers where they learn a work ethic. Obama/commies want them learning the welfare ethic, being dependent on gov’t for sustenance.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...Obama/commies want them learning the welfare ethic, being dependent on gov’t for sustenance.

Bump!

Best to get them into those "reeducation camps" aka called "higher education."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The purpose of such regulations is to drive people off of rural lands. It is the folks in rural areas who are predominately conservative.

The regulations already on farmers is killing their bottom line.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If my own memory is any indication, kids from about 12 up are as heatproof as any adult, given they get enough hydration. Keep the kids in Kool-Aid (the real kind) and an occasional Pepsi or Coke, and they’ll happily tassel the corn.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"While many teenagers sleep in during the summer, 14-year-old Will Bennett wakes up at 5 a.m. to make it to his summer job -- corn detasseling.

While it's hard work in the hot sun, it does have its rewards, said Bennett, a Galesburg resident and Gull Lake student who is in his second summer of detasseling.

"Money doesn't just come down to you. It teaches you how life is going to be," said the industrious young man who will start high school this fall.

....."Lori Bennett, whose family moved to Galesburg about four years ago from Lansing, said when she first heard about corn detasseling, she wasn't sure she wanted her son to do it.

"I'm a city girl. What do you mean you're taking my son out to corn detassel?" she said of her initial reaction.

But now she's a convert.

She praised the company her son works for: "They had great informational meetings," and "they operate in a very professional manner."

And she sees the work as "a great job for young boys."

"One of my neighbors said, 'If you put corn detasseling on a job application or resume, they will know you can work really hard,'" she said."...... Source

[Cincinatus' Wife]

“We are fed up with being overtaxed and overregulated. We are tired of being told how much salt we can put on our food, what windows we can buy for our house, what kinds of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kinds of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what political speech we are allowed to use to elect candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what kind of food we can grow, what doctor we can see, and countless other restrictions on our right to live as we see fit.” -- "Fed Up" by Gov. Rick Perry

[savagesusie]

Yep....my parents would have been put in prison for child abuse.

There would have been no persons of the character and integrity like Abraham Lincoln or the Wright Brothers, if this fascism and parental controls were allowed during their time.

BUT parents would NEVER have ALLOWED government to interfere in their families back then. Nope—they didn’t have the forced government Centralized indoctrination centers to destroy the minds of children back then either.

In fact, most didn’t go to school more than a few years....that was enough to create literate educated people at the level of Ph.D’s back then when Rhetoric, Mathematics and Phonics and Classics were taught, instead of condom wearing and how to perform homosexual acts. It is really sick what schools are doing to children now a days. They are getting a Penn State Type Education.

[HiTech RedNeck]

And why not girls? Keep both genders in Kool-Aid (and sunscreen, at least till they’ve built up good tans) and detasseling won’t be too hassling. I bet the boys would prefer that to mowing suburban lawns all day in the same weather.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If Perry steers clear of moves that would be demographic suicide for the Republicans, he would be a half sensible candidate.

[DH]

One more step to ruin “work ethic” from the American culture.

Hell! I was 9 years old sacking groceries while learning the work ethic and going to the school of hard knocks.

From that point on, I worked and now own a business that I have run for over 35 years.

[lgjhn23]

Somehow, I can see “cash on the barrel head” deals coming. No W4s, no W2s, no W9s, no stinkin’ fed paperwork whatsoever, etc. etc. etc. This fascist clown adiministration is creating a HUGE underground economy the likes of which have never been seen before in U.S. history.
Sometimes, what a bully doesn’t know only hurts their pocketbook....too bad, so sad.

[msrngtp2002]

Years ago on many Navy bases the grocery baggers at the commissary worked for tips only. They usually made something like 30 bucks or more per hour. There was a waiting list to get the job.

Then some genius changed the rules so they couldn’t work for tips any more. Had to be paid an hourly rate and were not allowed to accept tips.

First thing that happened is all the baggers quit, the waiting list went away, service quality declined. I have not shopped on a base in many years but my guess is that there are no more grocery baggers, you do it yourself, carry them to your car yourself.

Government intruded in what was an exceptional system - the baggers made good money, the service was really good, and your food was properly handled.

I think the reasoning had something to do with reported income for tax purposes.

[muddler]

Obozo has been at war with farmers, farms and agriculture since his days in ill. senate.

He hates rural America and now has a plan to offer incentives for inner city people ro purchase farm property.

[muddler]

Obozo has been at war with farmers, farms and agriculture since his days in ill. senate.

He hates rural America and now has a plan to offer incentives for inner city people ro purchase farm property.