Children in Agriculture
Seven in 10 child laborers around the world work in agriculture. These children face many dangers from razor-sharp farm implements like machetes, knives, and scissors, from heavy equipment, and from the widespread use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Tragic Story of Deaths in a Grain Bin Highlights the Need for Increased Safeguards and Larger Fines
Twenty-five to 30 kids a year die at work. Through its advocacy and co-chairmanship of the Child Labor Coalition, the National Consumers League (NCL) has worked to reduce that number over the years. Each spring, NCL produces a report called “The Five Most Dangerous for Teens.” For several years, we worked to help enact proposed [...]
USDOL Press Release: Withdrawal of Proposed Occupational Child Safety Rules for Farms
News Release WHD News Release: [04/26/2012] Contact Name: Joshua R. Lamont or Elizabeth Alexander Phone Number: (202) 693-4661 or x4675 Release Number: 12-0826-NAT Labor Department statement on withdrawal of proposed rule dealing with children who work in agricultural vocations WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today issued the following statement regarding the withdrawal of [...]
Human Rights Watch’s Zama Coursen-Neff on The Hidden Victims of Tobacco
The smoking habits of the presidential candidates keep coming up: Barack Obama’s efforts to quit, Mitt Romney’s abstention. Romney signed a ban on smoking in bars, restaurants, and indoor workplaces in Massachusetts in 2004; President Obama signed a law in 2009 that broadly restricts marketing cigarettes to children. Far less attention, however, is being paid [...]
A Guest Blog: For the forgotten, who we remember once a year…
[A Guest Blog from acclaimed filmmaker Robin Romano, director of the The Harvest, an extraordinary film that highlights the emotional toll that child labor places on child farmworkers. The blog originally appeared on the Media Voices for Children web site. Media Voices for Children is a member of the CLC. For the forgotten, who we [...]
Agriculture: Harvesting Crops and Using Machinery — One of the Most Dangerous Teen Jobs 2012
According to the CDC, in 2009 more than one million youth younger than 20 years old lived on farms and 519,000 of this number performed work. An additional 230,000 youth and adolescents were hired to work on farms. Americans are reluctant to admit it, but farms are very dangerous. Agriculture is consistently ranked as one [...]
