OSHA Investigating Deadly Farm Accident

Hannah Kendall (left) and Jade Garza (Photo from Facebook)A couple weeks ago we heard another sad reminder of how dangerous – even deadly – farm work can be for young people:

Representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are in northwestern Illinois today, continuing an investigation into the electrocution deaths Monday of two 14-year-old girls working in a cornfield.

According to spokesperson Rhonda Burke in the agency’s Chicago office, OSHA representatives were in Tampico yesterday as well after Jade Garza and Hannah Kendall, both of Sterling, died after coming in contact with a field irrigator while working at removing tassels from corn. A Facebook page has been created to remember the two girls.

The two were among 72 contract workers for Monsanto Corp. who were working the field at that time, according to a release from the St. Louis-based corporation. The release said the two were "electrically shocked by a center pivot irrigation system" and that other workers in the area also reported feeling the shock.

Click here to read more from the Chicago Tribune.

Child working on farms are more likely to die from work-related accidents, and face higher injury and illness rates than adult workers.  Each year, over 100 youth die from farm-related injuries in the U.S., and many more are injured. Children who work in fields treated with pesticides are at greater risk of developing neurological and reproductive health problems, as well as cancer. 

North Carolina child labor law permits children as young as 12 years old and in some cases as young as 10 to labor in the fields, while in every other industry the minimum age is 14 or above. Agriculture is one of the three most dangerous industries in the nation, and yet every year across the country close to 500,000 farmworker children and youth risk their childhood, health, and well-being in order to bring food to our tables. Children in North Carolina are no exception. 

Field investigations in North Carolina have uncovered children as young as six working in the fields. Most Americans still envision farms as safe, nurturing places. Unfortunately, the safe, happy and healthy farm life that many of us imagine is just a myth for farmworker children in North Carolina.

Click here to help end child labor in North Carolina’s fields.  Take action today.

Shameful Harvest

In late July, the Durham News published an amazing op-ed written by a rising 10^th-grader at Carolina Friends School.  Lucas Selvidge’s “Shameful Harvest” talks about his experiences during a week-long service project at Episcopal Farmworker Ministry – a member of FAN. 

While there, Lucas did everything from sorting clothes to visiting labor camps, and he talks about the lasting impression that these experiences made on him:

Some evenings, Father Tony took us to the camps where the farm workers and their families live, where we distributed toiletries, clothes, food and toys. On our first night of visiting we heard that the men had been working in the fields since seven-thirty that morning. They had worked until dusk, which was when we showed up. Hearing that fact alone made me feel tired. I was exhausted from doing two hours of easy work that day. But they work in the fields from dawn until dusk every day for almost no money, which allows us to buy food as cheaply as possible.

No wonder they were too tired to play when our class challenged them to a game of soccer.

What we saw when we went to the camps was that when the farm workers finish their long day of work, they come home to living spaces that are not very pleasant. When I had first seen the farm workers and their children at Father Tony's church service, I had no idea that they were living crammed with lots of people into small trailers with inadequate heating, cooling and insulation, as well as no indoor plumbing, no privacy in bathrooms, and minimal belongings. And that they were working hard all day harvesting our food but barely had enough to feed their own families. Seeing it with our own eyes made a big impression.

Click here to read the entire article.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of the truth that all people deserve dignity in their homes and on the job.  I think we’re all grateful to Lucas for both the week of his life that he offered to others and for raising his voice to help improve their lives over the long-term.  

A Tomato Daydream

By Erin Krauss, Long term resident of NC, lover of just-food, community social worker, FAN Volunteer

My daydream thoughts: Tomatoes are here. Every Saturday, I stroll down to the community farmers market and walk the circle twice, maybe three times – admiring the colors, the smells and the imagined tastes of all the homegrown vegetables I see. Lately, tomatoes have been available in great supply and will continue to be as long as the heat lasts. In the front yard of my apartment building, tomatoes are also thriving. A raised garden bed and multiple buckets make for prime growing space; I am proud and relieved that I’ve finally found the time and space for urban gardening.

Just as my daydream about tomatoes begins to ripen over weeks of planting, watering, and finally picking, I am reminded of the tomato turmoil that exists in the world we live in. I’m not talking about bugs or deer attacks or salsa gone bad; I’m talking about massive global systems wrapped up in the tomato harvest and the many people whose lives depend on these systems.

Barry Estabrook’s new book, Tomatoland, tells the tale of this tomato turmoil. Estabrook was recently featured on NPR’s Fresh Air. During the interview, the author spoke to all the things in my daydream: a tomato’s color, taste, harvest and even nutritional value. He also told the story about how this crop has evolved to be an out-of-season commodity that large-scale farmers in Florida depend on and often exploit for economic gain. The interview explained how the fruit is pumped with nutrients and pesticides to survive in Florida’s climate (which it turns out is not ideal for tomato growing), then picked while hard and green and gassed to achieve artificially ripe coloring. According to Estabrook, in the 1960’s grocery store tomatoes had about 25% more vitamin C and much more niacin and calcium than they do now.

Estabrook also explored the issue of who does the hard labor of tomato harvest and what the consequences are for the people working the fields, including child-labor, modern day slavery, deplorable conditions, poverty wages. In Estabrook’s words, "Of the legal jobs available, picking tomatoes is at the very bottom of the economic ladder. I came into this book chronicling a case of slavery in southwestern Florida that came to light in 2007 and 2008… These were people who were bought and sold. These were people who were shackled in chains at night or locked in the back of produce trucks with no sanitary facilities all night.” Although seven legal cases have been successfully brought to court in the recent past regarding current day slavery, abysmal conditions still abound.

Many of us are familiar with stories of Florida tomatoes and the Coalition of Immokalee (CIW) Workers, including the gains that CIW has made in their long fight for fair treatment and wages, and the challenges they still face. As I listened to this interview on a popular NPR program, I had to pause. These days food writers, foodies, small-scale farmers, anti-hunger workers and people generally concerned with food are all noticing how the agriculture industry in the US is failing on several fronts. Tastes and nutrients have declined while small-scale farmers are increasingly competing all over the world with industrial-scale farming operations. Despite the massive yield of those operations, roughly 1 out of 4 children under 5 go hungry in North Carolina. So who is winning here? The US agriculture industry is failing the American people – the workers, the consumers, small farm owners and hungry children. It seems clear that this system is so broken it’s not working for anyone except massive corporate interests.

Beyond feeling satisfied with the small mark I’ve made by planting my own tomatoes this year, I am grateful for Fresh Air’s interview about Tomatoland. I am grateful for the reminder that all of us are touched by the food system – those who work in it, and those who consume the fruits of labor. We must work together to make this system function well and treat people with dignity. What would it take for our nation’s tomatoes once again to be rich in vitamin C and other nutrients? What would it take for the workers who pick this fruit to be treated with respect? What would it take for this food to really arrive on the plates of the people who need it the most? These are the questions we must make ourselves think about this season while we enjoy fresh summer tomatoes – whether they’re from the grocery store, the farmers market or from our very own back yards.

Let there be dignity in food.

Faces in the Fields

Workers harvesting sweet potato in 2009. Photo by Peter Eversoll.By Zachary Kohn
Law Intern, NCJC 
J.D. Candidate 2013
UNC School of Law

This summer on outreach, I had the privilege to talk to farmworkers about everything from La Copa de Oro to minimum wage laws, and witnessed everything from scrimmage soccer matches, to workers trotting home under a majestic sunset with dozens of buckets strapped to their limbs, to tractors spraying pesticides in fields right next to farmworker housing. I enjoyed the aroma of delicious traditional meals being prepared at the end of the day, shared tortillas off of a truck with famished workers and even filed a few complaints with the NCDOL on behalf of farmworkers. 

Among the most memorable experiences so far was at a migrant labor camp where workers are suffering from bed bugs, snake bites, inadequate bathroom and water breaks, and housing with malfunctioning toilets, refrigerators, and stoves. The farmworkers at this camp, a talkative and friendly bunch, did not bring up any of these issues until we had been talking for hours. Even when the problems came to light, almost no worker wanted to file the complaint, even anonymously, out of fear that their employer might retaliate. Fortunately one worker had the desire for change. He told us that he would make the complaint not for himself, but for his fellow workers and future workers living at that camp. I cannot imagine a better client or a more righteous act.

Migrant farmworkers, just like anybody else, need to be able to prepare and store food free from insect infestation, earn livable wages, receive proper medical care, have access to water and bathrooms at the workplace, work in a location free from exposure to pesticides, have privacy in their homes and sleep on actual beds with mattresses. And no one should have to work for an employer who takes advantage of him or her.  Unfortunately, most of what we would consider basic requirements for human beings appears to be frequently denied to these incredibly hardworking, optimistic people.

Nonetheless, we can apply the same optimism and dedication the farmworkers have when they travel thousands of miles from home to do back-breaking work, by refusing to let others treat these workers as a distant abstraction. We must do everything in our capacity to demonstrate our belief that these honest people deserve an opportunity for a better future instead of being cheated, abused and lied to. We can witness, speak to farm workers, share our knowledge with others, make documentaries, pressure the legislature to pass bills in favor of humane treatment of farm workers, write about our experiences with workers, file complaints on their behalf, and even file lawsuits. What we cannot do is be complacent and accept their mistreatment. We must act. 

The outreach trips have been one of the most rewarding aspects of my legal internship at the Justice Center. Aside from interacting with clients and brushing up on my Spanish, I witnessed the hidden realities of our agricultural system, awakened to the plight of the truly impoverished, reignited my desire to study law and learned firsthand that even in the most truly difficult situations people can find happiness and hope. While it's frustrating at times to see progress in farmworker's lives develop so slowly, I can only hope that they have received at least a fraction of the benefit I gained from participating in this incredible experience.

Summer Homework: Plow the Field

The American Prospect recently featured an article about how a legal loophole allows young children to work in agriculture:

Farmworkers are frequently exposed to dangerous pesticides, heavy machinery, and sharp tools, and children are much more vulnerable to the bad effects of these than their older colleagues, according to Levy Schroeder, director of health and safety programs at the AFOP. Deaths from heat exposure and tractor rollovers, and lifelong repetitive strain injuries from stooping for hours on end are just some of the risks that young children face in farm work. “They are not little adults; their bodies have not yet developed,” Schroeder says. Children’s young immune systems are also particularly susceptible to pesticide exposure, which has been associated with cancer and respiratory and reproductive problems over the long term.

Maria Mandujano, now 20, started working on farms in her home state of Idaho at age 11. “It was just something you had to do to put food on the table,” she says, but now she laments the experience. “I wish my parents would have said no, or somebody would have been there to say no,” she adds. Mandujano is now studying in college and is trying to lure her younger brother away from the fields. “I always try to explain to him how he can benefit from not working the fields right now, what he could do in exchange,” she says. “For example, learning from my own mistakes and not growing up as quickly as I did.”

One thing that frequently gets sacrificed is education—Mandujano is a rarity for making it to college. In fact, young farmworkers are four times more likely to drop out of school than their peers, according to government estimates. López moved around the country for work during her summers and often found herself months behind in school when she returned to her home in Texas in late October. Despite the odds, she graduated with a bachelor’s in communications and now works at AFOP to advocate for those less fortunate. “More than half of these kids don’t complete high school,” she says, “and we continue to allow that to happen.”

Click here to read more.

Here in North Carolina, the Farmworker Advocacy Network is committed to ending exploitative child labor – but we need your help.  You can start by:

• Signing up for email updates (2-3/month)
• Liking us on Facebook
• Following us on Twitter

Hope in the Fight

In a recent blog post, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis states:

Combating child labor is a daunting challenge. As we mark World Day Against Child Labor on June 12, more than 200 million children are working around the globe—and more than half are working in dangerous jobs. 

Every young person deserves the chance to be in school and learning—not sacrificing their childhoods working in life-threatening jobs. Children across the world who are forced into labor are risking their health, their future and their lives.

And this poster by the U.S. Department of Labor reminds us that “We cannot succeed on the backs of children.”

Most people perceive child labor as an issue that only affects developing countries.  However, it’s also a problem here in North Carolina.

In the U.S., children account for roughly 1 out of every 5 work-related deaths on farms, and face higher injury and illness rates than adult workers.  At least 9 children have died working on farms in NC in the past decade, and many more have been injured.  (Right now we don't know the exact numbers because North Carolina does not keep track of how many child workers have died in agriculture.)  

Children who work in fields treated with pesticides are at greater risk of developing neurological and reproductive health problems, as well as cancer.

Here in North Carolina, one simple way to help wipe out exploitative child labor is to close the legal loopholes that allow young children to work in agriculture.  House Bill 838 would have done just that, but big agribusinesses are apparently more interested in corporate profits than the health and future of North Carolina's youngest workers.  These special interests shut down debate on the bill this spring and prevented it from coming to an up-or-down vote.

Secretary Solis says that “Our mission is difficult, there is no doubt.  But it is not impossible. The job of eradicating hazardous and exploitive child labor must get done.”

There is a long road ahead of us, but we can get there together.  Will you stand with us? 
Endorse the Harvest of Dignity Campaign today.

Protecting farm kids: a tough row to hoe

By Harry Payne, published in the Raleigh News & Observer

RALEIGH - One in every five farm deaths in this country ends the life of a child. We must face North Carolina's role in that bloody truth.

North Carolina law doesn't allow children aged 13 years and under to be exposed to the dangers of the modern adult workplace: no construction sites, chemical plants, poultry processors or pickle factories. Sharp blades, heavy weights, power equipment, toxic chemicals, conveyer belts and the rough edges of adult behavior make these workplaces no place for kids - except if they work in agriculture.

Yet farm work has these dangers and more. Add green tobacco sickness, snakes, pesticides and rural isolation into the mix, steam it in sweltering heat and you have the real life story of "How I spent my Summer Vacation" guaranteed to a few thousand North Carolina kids not yet old enough to shave.

The continuation of this misery and danger is made possible by the efforts of the N.C. Farm Bureau and the state labor commissioner, and it may well be the story of that pint of blueberries you just picked up at the store.

Agriculture is exempt from most of the child protection laws and OSHA provisions that are intended to keep children from the worst danger and to protect folks in every other workplace. In the General Assembly this year, House Bill 838, offered by child advocates and sponsored by Ashe County Republican state Rep. Jonathan Jordan, would have taken the 10-to-13-year-olds out of the fields and restricted the older youth from specific hazards determined by the U.S. Department of Labor, such as applying pesticides and operating heavy machinery, that are the purview of those 18 and up in all other industries.

An exemption for farm family members was included - and then expanded - at the behest of the N.C. Farm Bureau. It allowed basically any work by family kids at family-owned or operated farms.

So far so good, right? But lest reason and common sense prevail at the General Assembly, the Farm Bureau and the labor commissioner intervened.

The commissioner's office reported her preference to wait on some consensus between the Farm Bureau and the bill's proponents. After much delay, the Farm Bureau revealed its position as being OK with the protections for the 10-to-12-year-olds, but not the 13-year-olds.

Negotiations broke down at this point, with child advocates again offering a slimmed-down version of the bill, without sacrificing the safety of 13-year-olds, but to no avail.

Jordan, the bill's sponsor, then explained that he would not bring the bill forward for a hearing because of his preference for consensus, the labor commissioner's opposition and the Farm Bureau's discomfort.

So the opportunity to discuss the issue or provide relief has now disappeared for the next two years - relieving the Farm Bureau and the labor commissioner of an awkward moment when they might be forced to explain their positions on child labor to the public.

If there is good reason for kids to work in these places, these people are well-positioned to make the case, and they should have to.

Forget the bucolic images of kids milking cows or raising a prized pumpkin. Farm life has changed radically since child labor laws were written at the dawn of the 20th century, and what we know about children and danger has changed.

Rather than make the case that the farm economy somehow turns on the toil of kids or reveal that somehow they see children forced by circumstance to do farm work as less deserving of protection than all other kids, they hide behind a bill sponsor they have pressured to hold the bill. They want him to take the heat for their turning their backs on children in danger.

Raise your hand if you support child labor

Photograph shows half-length portrait of two girls wearing banners with slogan "ABOLISH CH[ILD] SLAVERY!!" in English and Yiddish ("(ני)דער מיט (קינד)ער שקלאפער(ײ)", "Nider mit Kinder Schklawerii"), one carrying American flag; spectators stand nearby. Probably taken during May 1, 1909 labor parade in New York City. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abolish_child_slavery.jpg

As a society, we decided 75 years ago that child labor needed very strict guidelines to make sure that education comes first and to prevent abusive conditions.  The only problem?  Children in agriculture were exempted from these protections, in part because most farms were small family operations that needed everyone’s help.  Today, mass-scale agribusiness has replaced family farms.  But the exemption allowing child labor on farms has remained, meaning that there’s a good chance that pint of blueberries you’re enjoying was hand-picked by 12- and 13-year olds – legally.  These same children are too young to work in any other industry.

If you listen closely, you’ll hear two main arguments in favor of the status quo – in favor of child labor.

The most common one goes like this: “I worked on a farm when I was young, and it was hard work but I learned a lot.  There’s nothing wrong with hard work.”  Working on family farms is indeed our agricultural heritage, and so the proposed legislation to reduce child labor in North Carolina has a very clear exemption for the children of the farm owners.  However:

1. Today’s farms are dangerous places for children.  Large-scale agribusinesses use a lot of heavy machinery and pesticides – things that don’t mix well with kids.  Today, 20% of all farm deaths are children, even though children make up only about 8% of the agricultural work force.  From 1992-2000, 42% of work-related deaths of minors occurred in agriculture.  Half of the victims were 14 years old and under.
2. No one says that children shouldn’t be able to work at all.  But it doesn’t make any sense to exempt children working in one of America’s most dangerous industries, when those same children would be turned away from working at movie theaters or shopping malls.  Children in the fields should be protected in the same way as children in any other industry. 

Another common argument in favor of child labor goes something like this: “Farmworker families are so poor that their children have to work to support them.  It’s really an opportunity for them to save money and build their resumes.”

Most farmworker families are very poor – average annual incomes for farmworkers are around $11,000 – but the solution is not to allow child labor.  The solution is to support living wages and other safe, proven mechanisms that raise workers out of poverty.  Ending exploitative child labor is only one piece of a much larger puzzle, but it is a crucial piece.  Too often, we see that allowing child labor doesn’t break the cycle of poverty, it reinforces it.  Children who work in the fields often experience health problems and difficulty performing well in school because of the severe toll farm labor exacts on young bodies and developing minds.  

From the garment factories of New York to the coal mines of West Virginia, America decided a long time ago that child labor was not going to be the solution to bringing people out of poverty.  It’s been 75 years, and we’ve never looked back.  It’s long past time to close the loopholes and level the playing field for children working in our fields. 

Growing up working on the family farm is an important tradition that should be preserved, but employing young children in hazardous work should not be a tradition any longer.  Child labor laws should be the same for every industry.  All children in North Carolina deserve a safe, healthy and bright future.  It’s as simple as that.

Watch a short video on child labor in NC | Support legislation to end child labor | Endorse the Harvest of Dignity Campaign