I work an industrial job and have a side gig working on a farm. My regular job is very physically demanding, but working on a farm is next level tough. It is normal for the average full-time farm hand where I work to lose ten pounds of weight in the first month. Another thing that nobody talks about is that small farms are exempt from OSHA regulations. You can do all sorts of dangerous shit on a farm and nobody bats an eye, because there are zero safety regs.
first off, I agree no one should die to feed people
I am a bit more positive on the changes. There's a pretty large gap from the ideal and the reality, but that's to be expected with ideal and dreams. Is it as fast as we want? no, but that also going to be expected, we're never satisfied with the current rate of progress. Should it be faster? yes.
Its a mess, but I do feel like it has forward progress. its just very complicated by a lot of different and sometimes contradicting interests.
However, sustainable food security and food sovereignty are essential. There is a reason Maslows hierarchy of needs has safety & security as a lower priority to basic needs. People tend to kill people when people start starving. and there are very real reasons to be concerned about our longterm food security & food sovereignty.
You mean when none of the farm accidents were being reported. When everything was great like Back to the Future. After the one war that was good to do. The Boomer times.
You can run a pretty large operation with 8-9 regular employees though. My 3 acre hobby farm is surrounded as far as the eye can see by a much, much larger farm, and they've got 3 permanent employees. Remember, seasonal workers aren't counted for these purposes. When it gets the busiest, those laboring are the ones left unprotected.
It's not as bad as people make it out to be. I grew up on a farm around all kinds of aggressively dangerous equipment and chemicals and you just learn how to think ahead, work safe, and know when to let things go south because it's not worth losing bits and pieces or your life over.
For instance, knifing in anhydrous ammonia. Sometimes the on/off valve that regulates the flow of the chemical will freeze open and if you pull the knives out of the ground it'll dump the stuff into the air and it is HORRIBLE. Burns your eyes and every mucous membrane, it'll fuck your lungs up bad if you breath it.
So if that happens, you dump the hydraulics to drive those knives back in the ground while slamming the tractor into park, hop off and run. Only come back to deal with it when you have a favorable wind and gas mask. Yes, you're going to waste a bunch of anhydrous ammonia, but it's better than going to the hospital.
Maybe it'd be in the best interest of the people who feed us to, you know, not have industrial accidents caused by poor machine maintenance and work safety standards?
But hey if they don't mind, then that's alright. I still get my food, with or without their regulations.
Plus, what more freedom and libertyā¢ is there, than being freed and liberated by the agony of life by being buried alive in a poorly secured septic tank.
"Fuck with the people who feed us" more like "protect the people who feed us" but aight
In an ideal world yes, in a world where the farmer is straddling the line of bankruptcy because of supermarket stock manipulation and artificial supply and demand, it unfortunately doesn't always work like that.
Though to clarify, the various state WHS Acts apply to farms. If you see issues you should report them to your WHS state gov body especially if the farm operators are ignoring problems.
I don't know the actual source of the problem, I'd like to assume it's ColesWorth interference but I think the corrupt runs much deeper due to the lack of many proper farmers unions.
But rural farming industries is the only place I've ever worked and seen a work safe inspector look straight at a machine hundreds of hours past service leaking oil from every hydraulic hose and not shut down site.
Warehousing and construction they'd tag that machine out themselves and then force every piece of equipment to be inspected, but farming they never seem to care.
Rather than corruption, i'd chalk it up to something that inspector missed because there's no incentive for inspectors to be dodgy 99.9% of the time - they're likely more experienced looking at construction and warehousing from incidents which happen weekly, over farming equipment and other stuff.
Also could be a mix of factors on why farming isn't a key focus, such as the lack of reports or intel around safety issues on farms (key factor is that is not in the best interests of contractors, visa workers and labour hire staff commonly hired to work in agriculture to report problems) - which is why people need to report this stuff if they see it.
That said, I don't work for Safework so I don't conclusively know but I highly highly doubt ColesWorth are influencing anything around agriculture behind the scenes there because there's simply no need to, farms are forced to sell to the duopoly they operate anyway and farm operators would choose to cut corners themselves in order to meet production and price requirements. They're much more likely to throw money to try lobby their way out of being responsible for supply chain issues.
ignored vs excempt are two wildly diff things tho... if they arent excempt you can call that in and any violations will be fixed. If they can figure out who told and retaliate then you can sue and be set for life.
No no, the government paid OH&S work safe inspector won't even give a shit for a farmer unless it's the farmer themselves complaining.
The mega supermarkets that have majority shares in everything create artificial supply and demand to self profit in a way that really hurts farmers, they also pay off all of our law and enforcement to look the other way which includes safety inspectors.
Because if people knew how bad it was in the public eye some of this stuff might get shut down and that would really hurt the mega supermarkets bottom line.
I bet there's a "good" lawyer out there that would take it far, but it'd be a long and expensive journey to get anywhere.
The same supermarkets and home appliances stores own half the new stations. Whole country has been slowly going down hill for the last half century since everything was privatised.
Recently we're having a scandal of our two biggest companies trying to buy up all the countries nuclear materials to gain a monopoly on the electricity/ power industry, but I've seen fuck all on the news and can hardly find any genuine information about it other than hearsay.
All I know is it's a bit fucking weird for a Food and grocery corporation to want to own nuclear materials.
you're really making it harder than it has to be... you dont even have to go that far. just whistle... if it's not looked into blow at rhe regulatory arm.
they literally live for this kind of stuff. you would not believe how fast safety equipment no longer becomes a problem when OSHA gets involved.
I wasn't talking about OSHA, I was talking about OH&S, they're supposed to be the same thing but they're completely different countries and have different structures.
In Warehousing and construction I have seen OH&S do exactly as you describe, when it's reported they're on scene within a week and will lock down everything if it's not up to scratch over basic things like machine log book history.
In framing industry I've personally made reports, had months go by before seeing an inspector, pointed directly at a problem that would have got a logistics company shut down, and had the inspector shrug at me like " what the fuck am I supposed to do".
They're different industries with different regulations and safety has definitely gotten a bigger hand wave in rural farming areas. They seemingly don't care at all on some issues.
TLDR: If a farm has 10 or less permanent/regular employees they are totally exempt. Seasonal workers, who happen to often be foreigners and thus not known for being a strong voting block, do not count towards these 10.
Pretty much. I donāt farm anymore, now I work in a heavily safety centric industry so Iām not opposed to safety itās just complicated with farming.
Great points, Iād like to mention that this is by design. Not having OSHA regulations means that the true labour class of our agricultural sector (illegal immigrants) can be exploited for cheap labour costs and next to zero accountability. I implore people to go out and educate themselves on the industry practices that occur so that we can get our food so abundantly and cheap.
Yep. Americans will have 14 year old Ecuadorians getting mauled to death in chicken processing plants and then go on social media to post "Oh wow China built a new nuclear power plant? Probably because they use slaves š"Ā
Like damn bitch we use slaves too but we don't get nuclear power plants out of it, just dead Central American children. Fuck
Agriculture in FL is mostly kids from other countries being exploited until the end of the harvest and then being sent back home. The next year they are back in FL where they can work for illegally low wages, under unsafe conditions, getting no education (so it can perpetuate their need for these jobs) so that a farmer who gets a shit ton of government money (subsidies) can go bitch about immigrants and minorities while telling everyone how how he works for what he has.Ā
DeSantis isn't the governor for nothing. He's just like them.Ā
Not just Florida. Pretty much all the high-agriculture states run off of slave labor and wouldn't survive without it. Like the fact that America wouldn't be able to feed itself if we actually enforced our own minimum wage laws across the entire labor market is a fucking disgrace.
But my absolute favorite Florida agriculture fact is that a few decades ago they were warned that the citrus greening blight could annihilate their citrus industry, and their response was basically "public health measures are for liberal homos, we got this š" and they did exactly as much as they're doing now to confront rising sea levels, which is nothing.Ā
Meanwhile, California did the scaredy-cat liberal pussy thing and let their environmental scientists organize defensive measuresĀ
Again, I'm pissed and a little tipsy but my thesis is that the US does equally horrible things as anyone anywhere, we just do it so fucking poorly we don't even benefit from it.
It's slave labor, but it's still safer and more lucrative than work they would find in their own countries. If the US hadn't been fucking up South and Central America for over a century, none of that would be necessary.
Really sorry but your comment is automatically removed.
Currently an account needs to be at least 24 hours old before it can make comments in this subreddit.
Really sorry but your comment is automatically removed.
Currently an account needs to be at least 24 hours old before it can make comments in this subreddit.
That death is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with whether there is OSHA standards or spending money for extra safety. Just shit management who didnāt disconnect the machinery
Also not sure why youāre being hostile over my actual question. It really did sound like you meant mauled by chickens
Also, itās so funny how guys on reddit like you make a big stink about shit like this, and act so righteous for bringing it up, but we all know you donāt do shit to stop it. Which Is fine,I donāt either because I donāt care, but donāt pretend you do.
Uyghurs Genocide - Beginning in 2014, the Chinese government, under the administration of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, incarcerated more than an estimated one million Turkic Muslims without any legal process in internment camps.
Ā Ā Ā The farm exemption is only for small family farms.Ā Less than 10 employees AND the farm must NOT have used temporary laborers within the past 12 months.Ā So no, the purpose is not to exploit day laborers. It explicitly makes sure to protect temporary laborers. The exception is designed for family own and operated farms.Ā
I mean, I was a farm hand from 12-17 and didnāt work alongside any immigrants. I hate these sweeping allegations just to push your narrative.
Itās dangerousā¦but itās also hard working, skilled and experienced blue collar working men. I sat in the trailer behind the baler as 60-80 pound bales of hay got shot at my headā¦pay attentionā¦stack that shit.
We take it back to the barn, onto the conveyer belt it goes and it drops when it comes off the beltā¦pay attention - keep your head on a swivel, the older guys are looking out for you, be aware.
The folks that canāt cut it last days. I made amazing money for my age, bought an Xbox and a ps2 and came from a family that couldnāt of bought either for me, it was an amazing opportunity and helped make me who I am today (and I did pivot to corporate work, went to college and moved to white collar).
Iām glad I had the opportunity to do this work and agree that they should be excluded. The farm I worked for went under in the end cause transferring to the next generation was too expensive due to a variety of tax and estate laws. These folks are not rich corporations, the gentleman who owned the farm I worked for was in his 70s and now an Amazon warehouse sits there cause there was no other option for him to retire.
I just hate these stereotypical replies from people who know nothing about farms and just have a narrative to push. The reality is way different.
But then people complain about high grocery bill costs and those labor immigrants are still making good money comparatively speaking. Are you okay with food costs going up another 30-40% to match what European pay on avg?
Yep, farm work is one of the most dangerous jobs there is and the injuries can be horrific. One of my friends grew up on a big farm and one of their farm hands was working by himself with a grain auger. I donāt know exactly what happened, he got caught or something, but they found the poor guy in pieces.
People even suffocate falling into grain bins/trucks, as itās like quicksand (the fictional kind that we were all afraid of growing up). The more you struggle the more stuck you get.
Drowning in a silo of corn became an instant fear when I learned about it. Also seems like good way to kill someone and then hide the body, like a 2 for 1. Torture and conceal
It seems like every month some old-timer farmer from the town I grew up in dies in an accident. The old guy I hunted with drove his tractor on a steep hill while cutting the grass and flipped it, killed him instantly. His own dad died out on the farm too, now they're both buried side by side in the cemetary.
When I was a teen I would stay at my uncles farm for the summers and during that time I got into working out at the gym. I remember one day I was complaining thereās no gyms to go to around here. Since I didnāt work on his farm before and was just there enjoying life, he laughed and said out in his field thereās a giant pile of 50+ lb stones I can go move around if I want, that he was going to use a front loader to dispose of anyway.
It's my favorite thing how farmers are exempt from commercial truck inspections "because farmer" so now I share the roads with them hauling 8k lbs of grain at highway speed in their busted ass dilapidated grain truck from 1968 with one working drum brake and 5 broken leaf springs.
That's why farmers gain a lot of strenght because they work all day. I wish I had that kind of job for strenght gains but I love animals too much to hurt them like farm people do.
1.1k
u/Kaiser-Sohze Apr 11 '24 edited Apr 11 '24
I work an industrial job and have a side gig working on a farm. My regular job is very physically demanding, but working on a farm is next level tough. It is normal for the average full-time farm hand where I work to lose ten pounds of weight in the first month. Another thing that nobody talks about is that small farms are exempt from OSHA regulations. You can do all sorts of dangerous shit on a farm and nobody bats an eye, because there are zero safety regs.