While many of us may assume that child labour has long been exterminated in North America that, unfortunately, is not the case. In the US, tobacco farming has been using children as their main source of labour for generations. Children are working long hours in tobacco fields where conditions are hazardous to their health due to the lack of laws in place to protect them. When parents and employers of the children are questioned as to why they feel child labour is acceptable their reasons are that they themselves were raised on a tobacco farm as a child as well and that their households are struggling financially. It is alarming that parents’ and employers’ visions have been clouded with tradition to push for their children to work in such harmful environments. That reason alone amplifies the dire need to have laws put in place to protect a part of the population that can’t stand up for themselves. However, it has been disappointing to see the US’s inadequate involvement and effort that is being put into helping protect the adolescent. In 2012, the Labor Department withdrew their proposal to regulate child labour in the agricultural industry due to politics. This has once again left children vulnerable in the most dangerous field of work for their age group.
The following video interviews children about their working conditions on the tobacco farms: