Child Labor on America's Farms

Farming has always been one of those stereotypical family businesses in the American imagination. Although today family farms are disappearing at a disheartening rate, especially in Tennessee, many do still operate. In fact, many of the vendors at our area farmers markets work small family farms. These farms, and those like them, involve the work of the whole family, often including children.

This means that a careful regulatory balance must be struck, which ensures the safety of these young people without unduly inhibiting the operation and viability of family farms. The Department of Labor, which establishes such regulation, has recently proposed revisions to the federal agricultural child labor provisions. The Department feels that the current provisions are too lax, and has proposed stricter regulations which, among other things, would prohibit children under the age of 16 from operating most farm machinery, handling pesticides, and working with many types of livestock.

Of course, it is essential that the safety of child laborers be ensured. That being said, it is not clear that the proposed regulations are as wise as they first seem. The Department of Labor has long had an understanding with family farmers that the work of children on farms is a necessary part of the business. For one thing, the experience and practical knowledge required to run a farm can only be acquired on a farm. Because of this, the new regulations do not alter the current full exemption for children working on farms owned by their parents.

Nevertheless, many family farms today are incorporated and it is unclear exactly how the exemption would apply for them. Farmers across the country are therefore nervous that the proposed regulations could eliminate their most effective method of passing on the family business to their children.

But let’s take a step back from the issue for a moment. There is reason that the family farm is a disappearing phenomenon - for one thing, it is often unaffordable!

Federal regulations and policies often cater to large agribusiness ventures at the expense of small farmers. As such, many small farmers maintain their businesses tenuously and see children as an inexpressive source of seasonal labor. To put it bluntly, it is doubtful that parents would expose their children and the children of friends and relatives to possibly dangerous farm work if they did not feel that the money saved made the difference between keeping or losing the farm.

Now, does this excuse those farmers who expose child laborers to unnecessary risk? Certainly not, but it does demonstrate that the proposed regulations would be treating a symptom of the problem, rather than the problem itself. Just like the employment of tens of thousands of illegal aliens on our nation’s farms, child agricultural labor is an effect of our devotion to cheap food, which increasingly makes factory farming appear to be the only financially viable agricultural method.

Now, to return to the proposed regulations, is it the case that they will protect some children from injury or death? Probably, but the financial strain that leads small farmers to use child labor in the first place means that many may continue to employ children, even illegally. The real need, then, is not for stricter regulations but for policy that makes family farming profitable and child labor unnecessary.

Only on the surface is the question one of irresponsible farming versus responsible farming. In reality, it is far more a question of cheap food against the safety of children. Thankfully, this is an easy choice to make.