ROCKFORD, IA - In rural north Iowa and southern Minnesota, young people working on the farm is a norm, but new regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor could change what some of those youth are legally allowed to do.
With more and more kids under 16 working on farms, the department is proposing revisions they say will strengthen safety requirements, but some think the proposed changes go too far and could actually end up hurting the industry.
“You want to try and protect the kids safety as much as you can and you hope they take that outside the classroom,” said Jym Hansen, agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at Rockford High School.
Hansen knows students start working on farms well before they're 16.
“I have students that I meet at the fair before I even have them in the classroom and that starts at fourth grade, they've already been doing some things and that does include students that don't live on a farm,” said Hansen.
Hansen worries too many restrictions could have a negative effect, and at least one state lawmaker shares that view.
“These had to be written by a bureaucrat in Washington D.C. that has never been on a farm,” said Iowa State Sen. Merlin Bartz. “The way they have them drafted right now no farmer would want to hire anybody under 16 years of age.”
Bartz says some examples of the Department of Labor's proposal include prohibiting work near grain bins and feed wagons as well as banning all chemical and pesticide handling for students under 16.
“Even if you had a two and a half gallon container of Roundup in your pickup you could not send a 15 year old to retrieve it to bring it to bring it to you,” said Bartz.
Bartz says these proposed changes would greatly reduce the amount of agricultural experience young people currently get, something concerning those educating them.
“If we're going to try and get a skilled labor force and we're going to be expected to have that skilled labor force then we need to be able to put them in that educational experience where they can learn hands on and do that actual trade,” said Hansen.
The public can voice support or concern about these proposed changes to the U.S. Department of Labor. The deadline to do so is Nov. 1.
Bartz says because these changes came out in the middle of harvest season he's concerned many farmers don't even know they exist.
