The roots and misconceptions of child labor in agriculture
Written by barb howe Wednesday, 04 November 2009 11:34
Child labor is a topic that most people have a visceral reaction to. The term brings to mind images of children laboring in sweatshops in third world countries, hunched over sewing machines making cheap clothing. As that recent investigative report by ABC News shows, you don't have to travel overseas to see children working; it's happening in our own backyards in the agricultural industry.
Democracy Now has a story today (watch the video here) on the ABC News report and spoke to chief investigative correspondent at ABC News Brian Ross and Teresa Hendricks, Executive Director of Michigan Migrant Legal Aid.
It's important to remember why these children are in the fields working instead of in school or daycare. Often there is a lack of accessible and affordable child care available to farmworkers. Farmworkers work for low wages and have few fringe benefits such a paid sick leave and health insurance. Add to that the appalling frequency of wage theft and often families are barely making enough to survive. The piece-rate system encourages families to get as many hands working as possible. Public and private institutions need to increase funding for programs for farmworker youth, including the Migrant Education Program and Migrant Head Start.
There is no single solution to child labor in agriculture. We need stronger laws and more enforcement of existing laws, but we also need to address the underlying causes of the problem: the extreme poverty that too many farmworkers live in, such that they have little choice but to have their children working alongside them in the fields.
An agricultural system based on the exploitation of impoverished workers will always produce unconscionable situations, in addition to fruits and vegetables.
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