Child labor laws getting an update?

I cannot remember if it was the paper or a news show that first dropped this tidbit of information, but it would appear that the US Government wants to go after cash strapped farmers even farther by mandating that children can no longer work on farms. When the Industrial revolution took of and the first wave of child labor laws came out, it was understood that children of families who operated farms were still needed to help keep the farm operating. It would appear that the Government no longer feels this way as it is looking at taking children out of the "Farm life" so they can spend more time on "Farmville."

I can only attempt to believe that the Government has the nations best interest in mind with it's plan to end child labor on farms, but in the long run, it is children working on the farm that go on to take the farm from their parents. Allowing a child 14 years to be lazy and unaccustomed to how farm life really is will only set the farm up to fail with the influx of the new generation. It is often the children of the farmer who take over the farm and keep everything running as they know every nut, bolt, and crop on their property. They feel more responsible for the farm as they have worked it their entire life, and they show a greater amount of responsibility in general.

The other problem with removing the farmer's children from his workforce is the need to replace the missing bodies on the farm. Farms today are only producing at a meager profit because of tax cuts and subsidies provided by the government. Forcing the farms to hire more people would only take away from their meager profit and may cause the farm to operate at a loss. A loss in a farms production puts more stress on the shaky ground of having to produce food to feed everyone and will inevitably drive up costs for the consumer who is already struggling to get by as it is.

My solution would be to destroy any plan of reducing the farms labor force and even suggest that farms become places to teach outside children the amount of work required to supply a meal that they are ungrateful for. Too many people today have no idea what it takes to keep food in the supermarkets so they can keep food on the table. Personally, my wife and I have started building a large backyard garden that our children are equally responsible for the maintenance of and share in the rewards. The hope is that we will not only save ourselves some money by having fresh vegetables and herbs at home, but to show our children the amount of time and effort required to grow even the smallest amount of food. Its becoming all I can do to keep them from picking our under-developed strawberries before they are ready, and they are watching the tomatoes to see how much longer they are going to stay green.