On April 26th, the US Department of Labor announced they were withdrawing a proposed regulation that would have severely limited the amount and type of work people younger than 18 years old could perform on farms. As proposed, these onerous rules would have banned children younger than age 16 from using farm equipment like tractors and would have kept those younger than 18 from working in feed lots, grain silos, and stockyards.
As a longtime opponent of this proposal, I was relieved when I learned of the Labor Department's decision to withdraw it. Its demise is a victory for common sense and for farm families across Iowa.
Any Iowan knows that banning young people from working on farms would strike and the very heart of agriculture in the Midwest. Working on the farm is part of growing up. It's part of our culture.
I started working on Iowa farms when I was in junior high. Bailing hay, shelling corn, chopping thistles, walking beans, and detassling corn was exhausting - but it was rewarding. We often shared a noon meal around the kitchen table. It taught me the value of a hard day's work for an honest day's pay, and gave me memories I will always cherish.
Defenders of the Labor Department's proposed rule said it exempted children working on their parents' farms, so it wouldn't be a burden. This made me wonder if these supporters had ever been to an Iowa farm. Most of our farms rely on labor beyond immediate family members. I know I spent most of my summers in the fields working for neighbors.
There are definitely hazards working in agriculture. But few people are more aware of those hazards and how to minimize them more than farmers. A balanced, common-sense approach to farm safety that focuses on education, safety training, and prevention is the answer - not a one-size-fits-all blanket regulation that imperils the ability of farms to function.
This was an important fight for Iowa agriculture. And I'm glad the federal government backed down and made the right move for Iowa farms.
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