The news: If you’re a 7-year-old in the U.S., you are by law too young to buy a cigarette at the counter — but you are old enough to work in the tobacco fields as a day laborer.
Human Rights Watched released a disturbing report Wednesday on child labor in America’s tobacco farms. The four states that grow 90% of U.S. tobacco — North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia — allow children as young as 7 to work in these farms for minimum wage. And it’s completely legal.
That’s right: Elementary school-age children are harvesting tobacco on America’s farms, exposing themselves to nicotine, toxic pesticides and dangerous machinery.
(Source)
I’ve never been a fan of “the good ole days”. Exploitation of the working class and families was always front and center in my mind as I read about the industrial revolution and our glorious path to the society we have today. Cue this story about elementary children working in the fields to remind ourselves of how advanced and how far we’ve come.
Bleh.
More on the happy fun times religion is bringing to the US over at the Experiential Pagan. :)
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
11 comments
May 17, 2014 at 9:24 am
syrbal-labrys
Thank you for covering this…I have snarky post in the WP “can” to post tomorrow morning — on how the oh-so-Christian-family-value states all do this sort of thing. Of course, many of these places once had laws allowing child labor on farms because of FAMILY farms –where every hand was needed at whatever harvest there was; but that is not what is going on now.
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May 17, 2014 at 9:27 am
The Arbourist
@Syrbal
I am completely shocked that christian religious norms are encouraging child labour and exploitation. :/
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May 17, 2014 at 9:29 am
syrbal-labrys
:::sigh::: I know, sad, isn’t it? As my post says…hoisted upon their own hypocritical petard.
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May 17, 2014 at 9:31 am
The Arbourist
If I remember, I’ll link to your post tomorrow, we can share the rage.
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May 17, 2014 at 9:34 am
syrbal-labrys
:::jumps up and down in glee, shouting::::
“Amok, amok, amok!”
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May 17, 2014 at 3:02 pm
pinkagendist
Ummmm… the tile? tObacco :P
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May 17, 2014 at 3:03 pm
pinkagendist
or perhaps I meant the tiTle :D
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May 17, 2014 at 3:08 pm
The Arbourist
@PA
On it.
Thank you. :)
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May 17, 2014 at 6:27 pm
UU4077
Somehow I think there’s something very wrong in this story – unless growing and harvesting tobacco in the US is very different from in Canada. First of all, it makes it sound like forced labour – is it? Harvesting also takes place mostly during the summer. Based on this article we are left to assume kids are being forced to work in tobacco instead of attending school. Are they actually paid an hourly wage? Or, is it a flat rate per day – it always was that I remember – I working in tobacco in Canada. And, I seriously doubt 7 year old kids are our “priming” tobacco (yes, that’s what “picking” or “harvesting” is actually called). I could go on and on but, again, I think this article is likely very misleading and is written in such a way that the reader makes assumptions about many things that are just plain omitted and the reader will assume that tobacco “harvesting” is like a regular 9 to 5 labour job when it is not.
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May 18, 2014 at 7:53 am
The Arbourist
@UU4077
For more specific answers to your questions I suggest you go read the full report found here.
In the most formal of senses, no. But is choosing whether your family eats or not really a choice? This is a generalization based on the population sample – poor immigrant workers.
Most are payed to work outside of school hours.
The term children, in the article is used to refer to anyone under the age of 18.
Thanks for your interest and comment. :)
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May 19, 2014 at 8:33 am
Monday Coffee – 19 May | Experiential Pagan
[…] legally even purchase. Wow, how very Third World! Imagine, I guess there in GOP-Baptist-ville, child labor laws must be as “quaint” as the Geneva Conventions were to Bush & Co.? I obviously just never realized that the full […]
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