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.”

[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.

[gettinolder]

Sure getting tired of this clown's administration of our country.

Keeping my MBR cleaned and ready.

[hal ogen]

Remember, Citizen... nobama hates you, hates your family, hates your success, hates Free America, hates Americans, hates the Constitution and hates the Bill of Rights. nobama is a hate crime foisted upon America. nobama is the Destroyer . Everything nobama does is intentional. God help us all.

[opentalk]

This administration has been over regulating small independent farmers making it harder for them to do business. I doubt this has anything to do with concerns about children of people.

[opentalk]

=or people

[Venturer]

Another idiot move by the Kenyan.

If there is a way to fugg up America, this vacationing POS will find it.

[dennisw]

right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
good honest clean outdoors work for teenage boys and girls which also means good hardworking boys meet good hardworking girls......  which is a good thing!!! Let them meet the good kids and associate with them instead of the degenerates and druggies

[Buckeye McFrog]

Through our history, from the Revolution onward, the Washington governing class has been sort of afraid to mess with farmers.

The fact that this bunch does not seem to care should raise alarm bells with all of us.

[AD from SpringBay]

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.

I have lived in the midwest my entire life, with the exception of several business trips to the coasts. I have never heard corn detassling refered to as, "corn sex". In the first lines of the story we have some sort of strange, Faulkneresq image of children and a prurient activity. Give me a break and tell the truth. How anyone cannot see through the media's spin on each and every story they bring is way beyond me.

[dagogo redux]

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”

Daniel Webster

[dnandell]

Another thing this does, is it cuts in half the number of years a kid can earn money for college. More federal college loans!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

As a teenager, I helped bail hay on the floor of what is now Rathbun Lake in Appanoose County, Iowa. Hot, sweaty work for $1.00 or $1.25 an hour. The hay ground was near the Chariton River and always wet. Those square bails weighed 60 or 70 pounds. The hay was sold for bedding rather than feed. The grass had a sharp edge to it so long sleeves were mandatory...

[Texan]

Yep, almost 50 years ago my future husband bagged groceries for tips at Ft. Carson, Colorado. He used the money to buy me an engagement ring.

[VanShuyten]

I detassled and walked beans when I was a teen. Early mornings were cool and wet, and the days were hot and steamy. Long-sleeved shirts and jeans were mandatory to prevent cuts from the sharp-edged leaves of corn.

I also detassled many years later after moving back to the US the summer before graduate school started. I still have that Dekalb hat they gave us crew leaders.

Obama forgets the entire purpose of schools having summer vacation. It was so farm kids could help out in the fields - hoeing, picking vegetables and cotton, baling hay, and detassling corn.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Did you Dekalb hat have the rocket powered ear of corn ?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cincinatus’ Wife.

[VanShuyten]

Nope. Just the flying ear.