NC Ag Commissioner Comments on Proposed Labor Rules

Late last week, the US Department of Labor announced that it would be dropping efforts to implement safety rules that would serously curtain, if not outlaw the ability of young people over the age of 16 to work on farms, even their own family farm. 

NC Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler responded to the comment period, as did the National Assocation of State Agriculture Departments in opposition to such rules.  Commissioner Troxler had several concerns with t he proposed rules, the most serious being that if young people didn't have an opportunity to work on a farm, they wwould have no incentive to return to farming.

Instead, teh Labor Department said it woudl work with the American Farm Bureau, FFA and other farm groups to develop an educational program on farm safety for young workers.