NYT Op-Ed : Pitting Child Safety Against the Family Farm

Marjorie Elizabeth Wood’s Op-Ed in the New York Times Pitting Child Safety Against the Family Farm brings the conversation about children working in agriculture back to the core of the recent battle that ensued after the Department of Labor proposed changes to the hazardous orders to protect children employed in agriculture. Due to political pressure, the DOL decided not to pursue the changes. Ms. Wood’s Op-Ed reminds readers of the long history of excluding children from agriculture reform based upon the argument of infringing on the “family farm.”

Marjorie Elizabeth Wood’s Op-Ed in the New York Times Pitting Child Safety Against the Family Farm brings the conversation about children working in agriculture back to the core of the recent battle that ensued after the Department of Labor proposed changes to the hazardous orders to protect children employed in agriculture. Due to political pressure, the DOL decided not to pursue the changes. Ms. Wood’s Op-Ed reminds readers of the long history of excluding children from agriculture reform based upon the argument of infringing on the “family farm.” Wood writes,“[t]he hullabaloo revealed that the same commercial forces that thwarted the Child Labor Amendment in the 1920s continue to stymie reform today. In an age when Big Agriculture still benefits from the laxity of our child labor laws, the reformers’ legacy is one we would do well to reclaim.”

Children employed in agriculture deserve the protection of higher safety standards.