Child labor on the farm, immoral or essential?

Life on the small farm, my sister and I weeding the garden.
 ( See mom, I told you I weeded that garden!)

My first "official" job was when I was 12 years old. I called it "official" because it wasn't just a weekend gig, I was home-schooled at the time, and I worked from 9:30 until about 2 (my schooling was from 8am until about 9:15am, it's amazing what you can get done when you don't have to wait for others to catch up). I worked at a game preserve/farm and sporting clays range about 10 minutes from my house. When I first started out, I was bundling this coastal grass the owner had grown for duck hunters. He would sell the bundles for duck blinds, which were pretty popular for the region. When I first started out, I worked with this guy named Ryan, who was 27 at the time. And like any new guy on the job, I did my best to follow Ryan's lead, and listen to everything he told me. Now, bundling Atlantic coastal panic grass is not a strenuous task, but about 15 minutes after work, Ryan says, "let's take a break". At the time, I was a bit surprised, I mean, we just got started. I grabbed my water bottle, took a big gulp and got back to work. Well, after another 15 minutes, Ryan got up from his golf cart, and walked over to give me a hand for another 10 or 15 minutes before taking another break. This went on and on for about 2 weeks, until the one day I came in, and my boss started off with, "are you ok with working by yourself today? Ryan is no longer with us". I found out later that Ryan had been fired, as he was lazy, but up until I came on board, he was my boss' only option. I had replaced an employee who was more than twice my age. 


This was a nice job for a youth my age, after bundling the grasses, I helped out with other things, cleaning up the range, mowing the grass, and doing small tasks. These were appropriate for someone my age, and any kind of inherent danger was minimized. There's no denying that there's an inherent risk in working in the fields, but the chances of this is relatively slim when managed properly. It was a good experience, and it gave me a different perspective on agriculture beyond the small farm I grew up. 


Growing up on a small farm, I was nowhere near as exposed to the rigors of living off the land, but nonetheless, I was able to take away some valuable lessons from this experience. For a practical matter, I learned to drive stick-shift, first on a tractor, and later on a truck. It served me well on multiple occasions, including in Europe, where nearly everything is manual transmission. But more importantly than learning how to drive a manual transmission, or how to drive a tractor, I learned something that is much more important. I learned what it means to have a solid work ethic. I learned what it means to give a man a good day's work, and the true value of a dollar. This is something I feel that people simply have lost through our disconnection to the agriculture system. In a globalized economy, it feels good to work a full day and earn an honest living.

I understand, it's not glamorous work, you probably won't get rich picking watermelons, but there's more to life than riches at that young an age. I feel that if more children had the opportunity to work on a farm early in their life, that they would not only improve their behavior, but would also take more pride in their work. I am a firm believer that hard work builds character, and some of the best characters I have met have come from an ag background. And who knows what you can achieve when a sound work ethic is instilled at a young age?