Obama out to destroy the family farm and the ability for kids to learn how to farm and care for farm animals

November 13, 2011 6:23 PM

Farmers worried about proposed child labor law changes

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Proposed changes to child labor laws in the agriculture industry are raising concerns.

Those proposed rules are supposed to only impact hired workers and exclude kids on family farms or those with 4-H and Future Farmers of America.

For the most part, kids under 16 would not be allowed to operate power-driven machinery, but for the ones that could, they cannot use electronic communication devices like cell phones while operating the equipment.

They also would not be able to work on a number of different kinds of farms or with specific animals.

Some farmers in West Michigan are saying in the interest of protecting kids the federal government may end up hurting them.

14-year-old Julie Meerman loves working on her family farm,”I come home, do my homework. Then I head off to groom my horse, feed my goats, milk the cows.”

“Where else are kids getting in touch with nature, the growing of animals, the growing of the food,” said Luke Meerman, Julie’s dad.

Luke Meerman said even though the changes allow kids to work on the farm their parents own, he has split ownership of this farm with his two brothers, which is a problem.

The exemption for FFA and 4-H if they are not paid, Michigan Sheep Breeders Association Executive Director Maury Kaercher said there are possible holes there.

“What if they raise an animal, take it to the county fair and sell that animal? Is that income,” said Kearcher.

Man-made meat may come soon

– It is not a sci-fi that humans can nurture meat like vegetables.

Scientists at Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit are researching in-vitro meat–burgers or sausages grown in laboratory Petri dishes rather than made from livestock, according to a Reuters report last week.

They are nurturing stem cells got from leftover livestock meat from slaughterhouses. To make them grow up to meat, Mark Post, one of the researchers in the project, said they feed the stem cells with sugars, amino acids, lipids, minerals and all other necessary nutrients.

By now, pale muscle-like strips have been produced. But each strip, 2.5 cm long and less than a centimeter wide, is hardly seen with naked eyes. Continue Reading on news.xinhuanet.com