One passionate person can make a significant difference, and a group of impassioned people can change the course of the U.S. Department of Labor.  Due to an outpouring of response from family farmers and elected officials nationwide, the DOL announced Feb. 1 that enactment of its new child labor regulations are on hold.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s new rules would have prohibited children from working with animals and from working for a L.L.C. or any top of legal family farming entity.  While some rule proponents have pointed out there is a parental exemption, many within the agricultural community believe it’s a grey area.  A new “parental exemption” rule is expected to be proposed this summer. According to the DOL, this exemption would allow children of any age who are employed by their parent, or a person standing in the place of a parent, to perform any job on a farm owned or operated by their parent or such person standing in place of a parent.

Responding to the DOL’s announcement about rethinking the “parental exemption,” Missouri hog farmer Chris Chinn said, “It is clear to all of us in the agricultural community that merely ‘tweaking’ the rule will not fix something that we believe is fundamentally flawed.”

Like Chinn, Congressman Tom Latham of Iowa believes the DOL needs to recognize the unique circumstances of family farm youth and multi-generational family partnerships in agricultural operations.  In December, he authored and introduced bipartisan legislation that expresses the sense of Congress that the Department of Labor.  Congressman Latham says, “ The face of modern agriculture has changed in many ways since the 1970s when these labor regulations were first enacted, and there’s no doubt that they need to be updated. But the Department of Labor must be sensitive to the needs of family farms that use alternate legal structures to stay in business.”

Several other Iowa officials have voiced concerns over the DOL regulations, as well.  In November 2011, Gov. Branstad and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey sent a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis asking the DOL to give Iowa farmers a fair opportunity to comment.  They also called the rule “a prime example of federal overreach” and were pleased to hear the DOL is reconsidering its burdensome regulations.

“As I grew up on a family farm, I learned the value of a strong work ethic by working alongside my family,” said Gov. Branstad in a Wallaces Farmer article on Feb. 4.  “I firmly believe Iowa farm families are better at ensuring the safety and well-being of their children than bureaucrats in Washington.”

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey, in the same Wallaces Farmer article, added, “It is important we continue to provide opportunities for young people to learn about agriculture and gain experience by working on farms in a responsible manner.  This announcement by the Department of Labor shows that they are responding to the comments they received and hearing the concerns of the farming community.”

RELATED POSTS:

1. Comment by Dec. 1 on how proposed changes to “child labor” regulations would impact your farm
2. Farm cores help build character & work ethic. If you agree, please contact the Department of Labor by Dec 1
3. FFA & 4-H projects could be affected by proposed “child labor” rules
4. Child labor? Oh, please! Every day is “bring your child to work day” on the farm.”
5. Teen Farm Labor is Vital in Rural Areas
6. Gray Area” vs. “Grey Matter

Educating consumers about agriculture isn’t new to farm organizations, but communication methods have changed over the years.  Just ask Larry Sailer, who raises corn and soybeans near Iowa Falls, Iowa.  Sailer (pronounced Cy-ler) has been in the hog business for 50 years.  During this time, he’s been active in farm organizations.  He currently serves on the Franklin County Farm Bureau board and volunteers with the National Pork Checkoff’s Operation Main Street Program.  He’s also involved with Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom project.

“Anything you can do to start a conversation with consumers about food and agriculture is good,” said Sailer in the Dec. 11, 2011, Agri-News article.

With this goal in mind, Sailer is a staunch supporter of “America Needs Farmers.”   America Needs Farmers (ANF) is a collaborative effort between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Farm Bureau Federation.  “We want to know what questions consumers have about what farmers do and why we do it,” he says.

Another way Sailer has helped explain modern agriculture to non-farmers is through the 2011 Harvest Tour for bloggers, which was sponsored by Franklin County Farm Bureau, Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds and debworks.  Participating bloggers had so many great things to say about their experiences riding combines, touring Latham’s seed production plant and shopping Main Street that they attracted national media attention.  Franklin County’s inaugural bloggers’ tour became the “Starting Point.”

When CNN visited Des Moines on Jan. 2 to cover the Iowa Caucus, the conversation turned to how Iowa farmers use the Internet.  That conversation made it increasing evident to Sailer why connecting with consumers – and helping dispel myths – is more important than ever.

“CNN introduced me as ‘a real Iowa farmer’ like I was an endangered species or an apparition,” says Sailer.  “Why is so hard to believe that farmers carry Smartphones or that the Internet is available in rural America?  Farmers chat online daily.  We blog, tweet and post Facebook messages, too.”

Thanks to his iPad, Sailer stays abreast of breaking news throughout the day and keeps in contact with farmers and ranchers across the globe.  “If I’m sitting in line at the grain elevator, for example, I’ll open my iPad.  I’ll pour over farm data or log onto Facebook or Twitter.  I use social media as a way to communicate and share ideas in a virtual coffee shop.  It’s also a great way to start a dialogue with consumer whose interest is piqued.”

Sailer has more than 1,500 friends on Facebook.  His favorite Facebook posts are those featuring photos from farmers and ranchers out west.  He also regularly visits websites like AgChat.com and FacesofAg.com.  In addition, he reads many ag-related and local community blogs including TheFieldPosition.com, Farm Fresh Blog, Need a little advice, Common Sense Agriculture’s Blog, Darin’s Ramblings, Wag’n Tales and A Glorious Life of an Idaho Farmwife.

Soon he’ll add one more bookmark to his list… Watch for Sailer’s weekly blog post to run every Tuesday on TheFieldPosition.com beginning Feb. 7!

“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone” is more than lyrics to a popular song that has topped the charts since 1970. It’s also become the mantra of many young professionals, who are leaving urban areas for an increased quality of life in rural communities.

A rural renaissance has been happening since the 1970s, says Ben Winchester, a research fellow for the University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality. One of his current projects involves documenting newcomers, or new rural residents who range in age from 30-45 years old and are either returning to their rural roots or moving to rural areas for the first time.

Many newcomers are basing their decisions on lifestyle and quality of life, says Winchester. One of the most interesting findings of his research is that people are not basing their decisions to move to rural areas based solely on job opportunities. Many newcomers are providing a rural brain gain. They’re bring high skill sets, such as college degrees and master’s degrees, and have a career path in place with outside connections.

In fact, many newcomers are self-employed. One in four owns a small business, and those who own businesses are heavily invested in their communities.

“It makes me wonder what the state of our rural economy would be if these newcomers had not been coming back these past 30 years,” says Winchester in an article posted by fedgazette.

Instead of spending so much time focusing on the brain drain of the younger residents who leave the state, Winchester is challenging rural communities to focus on attracting – and then retaining – the 30- to 45-year-olds who are migrating to rural areas.

Like the newcomers described by Winchester, my husband and I both moved to urban areas upon college graduation and then returned to our rural roots when our children were toddlers. After living in Kansas City and then Des Moines for a decade, I personally could never find paradise surrounded by pavement. Give me my apple trees, singing birds and buzzing bees. Give me rolling acres of waving grains and a horizon filled with sunsets instead of skyscrapers. Give me Rural America!

The battle between the GPS industry and a proposed 4G-LTE network backed by ground towers and satellites that may conflict with GPS signals continues, according to an article published recently by Agri-Pulse.

LightSquared is dedicated to bringing fast broadband service with minimal delay in data transfer speed. To do so, it launched a satellite in November 2010 that could give all users signal regardless of cellular range.  This all sounds like an answer to a prayer, especially for rural residents, who frequently experienced dropped calls and other issues associated with a lack of towers and limited capacity.

The conflict arises when the faster mobile 4G service essentially out-performs the satellite sending signals to GPS devices.  If the GPS signal gets interrupted and the GPS device doesn’t receive a service, it could affect data capture in the tractor.

For example, when I shared this story with my marketing team, one of the girls had experienced this problem first-hand six years ago when she was interning with a regional cooperative in northwest Iowa.  She was given the task of mapping field boundaries on 11,000 acres within seven days.  Due to technical difficulties, it became an extremely daunting task.  Her territory was in a very rural area, and the GPS device often lost the signal.  She would have to retrace the field boundary with a four-wheeler on which the GPS device was mounted.

While the GPS satellite system has greatly improved since that summer mapping field boundaries, this is an excellent example to help illustrate what can happen and to help explain why the GPS industry is concerned about how its customers will be impacted by the 4G satellite.  Just imagine the consequences of the GPS signal getting interrupted when fertilizer is being applied or yields are being calculated!

On the other hand, it’s easy to understand why LightSquared executives are upset that their project is being given the red light – or at least the yellow flag – when they’re nearly ready to launch.  They’ve had permission since 2005 to build the 4G network, yet no concerns were raised until the eleventh hour.  In the meantime, they’ve invested millions of dollars and countless hours on R&D.

No wonder the battle continues to wage.  Let’s hope they find common ground.  Figuring out how to protect the GPS signal’s viability for farmers while providing faster, more consistent mobile phone service would certainly benefit all who live in rural America!

Ever since Yahoo! published an article Jan. 19 by Terence Loose listing “College Majors that are Useless,” agriculturists across the nation have been having a field day.  The ground is snow covered throughout the Corn Belt, but the agricultural community is making hay any way!

I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Loose’s article does more than boost hits on the Yahoo! site… I’m betting it’s going to be one of the best PR opportunities our industry has seen.  It gives agriculturists a great chance to tell our side of the story to a captive, engaged audience.  He’s making our story relevant, timely and newsworthy!

Take a look at how people across the country are weighing in:

• “Without agriculture, everyone would be naked and hungry” is one of the tweets I read last week after the Yahoo story ran.  Since I couldn’t remember who deserves attribution for this quote, I did a quite Google search for “hungry naked agriculture.”  WOW.  My search revealed about 14,200,000 results with this one listed at the top:  Are You Ready to Be Hungry and Naked? | Hoosier Ag Today.  You can even buy “Naked & Hungry” T-shirts from the National FFA Organization.

• Ag grads have posted nearly 4,000 comments over the past four days on a new website, I Studied Agriculture and I Have a Job.

• In the Huffington Post, Allen S. Levine, Dean of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and Director of the Minnesota Obesity Center, University of Minnesota, writes:  “While I’m hesitant to give the list (by Terence Loose) more credibility than it deserves – it’s based almost entirely on U.S. Labor Department projections and one author’s opinions – this blog post is so far off base it has to be refuted.”  Click here to read his rebuttal.

Interestingly enough, a publication entitled Recruiting Trends 2010-2011 published by Dr. Phil Gardner at Michigan State University concludes:  “No sector appears stronger than agriculture/food processing with an increase in hires of approximately 14 percent.”

Mike Gaul, Director of Career Services for Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences,  says, “Every thing that’s happening at our college completely contradicts the Yahoo! article.  Our college has the highest placement rate on campus at 98.2%.  ISU CALS hosts the country’s largest agricultural career day.  The fall career day, on Oct. 18, 2011, was the largest on record with 175 companies exhibiting.  In addition, more nearly 1,200 interviews were conducted on-campus last fall.  Now ISU CALS is getting ready to host its 5^th annual spring ag career for which record participation is expected.

“When you invest in a college degree, you want to be marketable upon graduation.  A degree in agriculture is offering a great ROI right now,” adds Gaul.  “Agriculture is diverse and agriculture grads are in high demand.”

Agriculture is a far different industry than it was 50, 30, or even 10 years ago, says Levine of the University of Minnesota.  He’s quoted in the Huffington Post as saying, “Who knows? The next George Washington Carver, Temple Grandin or Louis Pasteur might be thinking about a future in the agricultural sciences right now; the health of our people and our environment could depend on what he or she chooses.

ISU’s Gaul agrees there are many more majors under the ag umbrella today including microbiology, horticulture, culinary science, and global resource systems.

Agriculture in 2012 is certainly broader than it was in my grandparents’ and my parents’ day.  It’s even broader than it was in 1993 when I enrolled at Iowa State University with a double-major in Agricultural Journalism and Public Service Administration in Agriculture.  My degree has provided me with wonderful experiences during the past 19 years including lobbying on behalf of Iowa agribusinesses, doing public relations for agricultural leaders and now owning a business where I have the pleasure of working daily with those who help feed, clothe and fuel the world.  Truly, an ag degree is one of most useful degrees!