Pear Harbor Remembered & Children Ag Workers

Pear Harbor Remembered & Children Ag Workers plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The Department of Labor is proposing sweeping regulation changes regarding children hired to work in agriculture, but this in no way affects the existing parental exemptions of children working on the family farm. Michael Hancock with the U.S. Labor Department emphasizes the importance of taking extra safety measures regarding farm and farm related equipment involving youth ag workers. 

HANCOCK: We have had several very serious and in some cases fatal incidents involving young people working in and around the elevator. It ranges from engulfment when they are stomping down the grain. There was a recent incident in western Oklahoma where two young workers lost one or two legs when they became entangled in an auger.

Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces which brought the United States quickly into World War II. About 120 survivors of the attack observed a moment of silence just before 8am when the first planes attacked the Navy base. 12 Navy ships were lost that day and 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians died.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

Last week the House passed the Regulatory Accountability Act and the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act. These bills would require agencies to seek more in depth scientific data before pursuing and imposing regulations, while requiring agencies to identify overall costs new regulations would impose on small businesses, and to then write the regulations in such a way that costs would be reduced. So often those in the agriculture industry are impeded by imposed regulations that were not properly and thoroughly investigated; regulations that seem geared more towards activist groups without a working knowledge and understanding of agriculture. There are those that see the passing of these bills as a federally endorsed attempt by large corporations to make it more difficult for agencies to protect the public. They also feel that it would cater to large business interests, while overriding the concerns of small businesses. But perhaps the RAA & RFIA, if both now go on to be passed by the Senate, will do more for small businesses and small family farms by protecting them from improperly evaluated and costly regulations.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.