Who's Picking Your Berries? America's DISGRACEFUL little secret!

reply to post by loam


I was going to say this is shocking,but kids all over the third world do the same stuff-slave labor to build our nike trainers/Ipads/plastic crap.
None of which we really need-we are just mind tricked into desiring such rubbish through the media.
So disgusting-yes,but not shocking sadly.

reply to post by CherubBaby

Originally posted by CherubBaby
reply to post by loam

 

I didn't make this clear. I don't believe it is true. In all my long life I have never seen or heard of such a thing in the US and find it strange it comes at a time like this when everyone hates or blames the US for everything..

Then I think it's safe to assume these children won't be able to rely upon you or others like you to protect their interests.

reply to post by loam


I think the parents should protect their interests. Are you on your way to Washington State?

Consider this:

1. The only people who do this are poor. Stopping the practice will just keep them in poverty longer.

2. Does every kid picking berries do this dawn to dark all year long? Of course not. Berry picking time only lasts 15-30 days out of the year. Usually in May-June, when school is letting out for the year.

3. The kids are short, which means they don't have to stoop to pick the low berries; in other words, they can do some of the work better than an adult could.

4. The concept that children should lay around in the summer and play video games is a product of the suburban middle-class ideal. Poor children have always worked, when they get the chance.

5. Rural America is organized around agriculture. It will be impossible for urbanites to understand, but farm work doesn't begin at 8 am and stop at 5, with coffee breaks and a pension fund.

6. Children often accompany their parents into the field because there are no day-care facilities out in unincorporated areas. The children often play as much as work. Since they are paid by the bucket, there is no penalty (other than lost opportunity) if they are slower than the adults, or need a nap.


I didn't grow up in berry-growing areas, but I did grow up in rural America. I started working on farms beginning about 6th grade (the nature of work demanded physical workers). I stacked hay bales and shoveled horse hit, stacked bushel bags of seed and feed, changed flat tires, and dug irrigation ditches, cleaned out fence rows, and set up portable pens. My parents used my pay for groceries at first, and cancer treatments for a dying family member later on. I only worked about one or two Saturdays a month during the school year, but worked all summer long once I turned 14 and could drive a tractor.

The kids I associated with (most of them Mexican, or the children of Mexican immigrants) bought our first vehicles with money we'd earned doing farm labor.

But you know liberals: always right, and always wealthy enough not to have to live with the "solutions" they invent to "problems" like this.

Originally posted by foxhoundone
reply to post by CherubBaby

 

Well said CB, Their parents are probably operating the machinery and installing in their children "This where you end up if you don't do your studies". And are grateful that they have more income coming in.

That is one of the reason for these laws, a lot of parents do exploit their little children for "more money". I have seen it.
When we grow up we have to spend a lifetime working to stay alive, children should have the child years free to play bot come home from work aching backs and cut up from berry stickers and sunburned day after day!

reply to post by dr_strangecraft

You was in 6th grade..some kids are just out of diapers...do you realize how hard this work is? It is very very hard work.

reply to post by Char-Lee


I agree with you totally that children should be children and enjoy their childhood. The problem is the Parents of these little ones. Go after them !!! It's the parents Disgraceful Secret not Americas'

Originally posted by foxhoundone
Cant see to much wrong with this IMO, I as a child was routinely sent to my cousins in the country to pick "Purdie's" it was hot and tiresome work but i was well fed and watered and even paid, I earned £10.00 a week (tax free) meet loads of friends and even saved enough to buy my first tool kit. As a comparison to the "youths" in the UK stealing to get there luxury's instead of grafting for it like the rest of us, It installed the true meaning of earning your monies, Just my two cents worth... And don't be to shocked when you have to pack your own kids out "the farm" to bring in some extra monies, this recession is far from over...

That is the sad part, in this country it used to be better, it was better here.
A child works pretty hard getting up most months of the year early and going to school, it is totally like a job.
They only have a few summers of childhood while they are young that gives any real part of life that is free and fun. I don't think most of these kids get to keep the money they make their families do.

I have rogued sorghum and other crops.

The tiny kids may be present in the field, but the amount of work they are doing is negligible. The primary benefit is that their parents can watch them, and don't have to hire a non-existent day care worker to do it for them.

I guarantee you no 5 year old is filling 5 buckets of blueberries an hour all day long. Think about it.

Yes, it's hot. But then, you've probably never even considered the fact that these people cannot afford air conditioning.

But it's the best they can do.

So yes, hurry up and take it away from them. Liberate them from the chance to make a few bucks by flavoring your ice cream. Outlaw the practice, so that there will be a robust market for illegal labor. Gee, how did we get where we already are? By people with the same response you have.

There are blueberry farms near where I live where children from 10-14 would pick berries during the summer holidays. Granted they're not as young as five, which is obviously too young, but I never saw anything wrong with this, its a way for children to earn some money.

When I was 7 years old my father got laid off and took up a job as a janitor in a 7 story building. On any of my vacations I'd follow my father in at 7pm when everyone was out and start vacuuming and cleaning until wee hours in the morning. I don't think we ever got home before 4am. My father paid me of course, and I never looked at the dollar in the same way.

Originally posted by loam
reply to post by TheWalkingFox

 

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
It's not shocking. It's capitalism.

If that were true, there wouldn't be child labor in China or much elsewhere in the world.

Capitalism isn't to blame....moral depravity and poverty are to blame...

The fact is, as a species, much of humanity tends to think of their children as chattel.

Plain and simple.

A nice bit of NLP, neuro linguistic programming.
Shift the blame from govt to the individual,frame the debate as either or,
capitalism or communism, ignore the middle ground of socialism.
the farmer is exploiting SOME ONE ELSE'S CHILDREN.
THAT IS WHY YOU NEED A SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT,(not state communism).
The job of the socialist government is to protect the people from capitalist exploitation.
State communism is just Utopian slavery.

reply to post by dr_strangecraft

So yes, hurry up and take it away from them. Liberate them from the chance to make a few bucks by flavoring your ice cream. Outlaw the practice, so that there will be a robust market for illegal labor. Gee, how did we get where we already are? By people with the same response you have.

I don't have any idea what you are saying...you are against child labor laws? There are already laws in place I am sure you are aware.
What does child labor have to do with how we got where we are today?

Yep, I know about this.... A lot of times these people are very poor and they are paid by the basket, so they figure, why not bring the whole family? More people to pick, the more baskets we get... More baskets, more money....

The problem was not the farm owners...It was that the employees would bring their kids to work....

Though if the owners knew about it, they should have made them stop.

Didn't I hear some "political figure" making statements not long ago about doing away with the Dept. of Labor.

I seem to remember this same person speaking about doing away with the child labor laws.

I sincerly do not remember thier name but I am going to keep my ears open for the next time I hear this.

It is just appalling how some people can think in these terms.

man this is messed up! child labor! see that guy with the hoodie on the last vid? looks like the evil vampire guy looking for his father in Blade 2. creepy as all hell. its wrong. paying them fair wages is one thing, for starters, and simply asking them to help the farmer is also. as in suppose you had a kid, and had lueberry, or apple trees in your yard, and allow yuor kid to help* thats one thing, forcing them to work is completely another!
i wanna email or call the blueberry place n ask why thye werent using leather tipped whips on the kids while they were at it. this should be sent to a federal court at least.
humans, its all were good for, sex slavery manipulation and decapitation, as hisotry has bluntantly shown timelessly again and again and again

I don't want some burger fingered kid picking my berries. little brats better wash their hands first!!

Holy crap, South Haven is like 30 miles from my house. I've always loved living in Michigan where we have fantastic fruits and vegetables. But this is going to REALLY make me think twice where I buy my stuff from. There are still a few places near by where you can pick your own berries or apple, etc. I knew there were a LOT of immigrants picking the fruit but I didn't know CHILDREN were among them.

I still remember picking cotton and onions as a kid around the ages of 4 and 9. We did it because we needed the money and we get to keep the extra stuff that they didn't want.

People may see this as something astonishing or embarassing, but hey, we needed to eat, to work, we needed to survive. If my mom hadn't picked cotton or onions, she wouldn't have gotten her nursing degree and we would still be doing it today.

Big deal is what I say, but it was easy then working on my dad digging trenches for the local electric company in 100 plus degree heat.

built me as the man I am today!

reply to post by dr_strangecraft

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
But you know liberals: always right, and always wealthy enough not to have to live with the "solutions" they invent to "problems" like this.

In your view, because I oppose the exploitation of children, I'm a liberal?



Wrong is wrong, imo.