GREENSBORO, N.C. - Children half the legal smoking age reportedly are laboring in tobacco fields in North Carolina.
It's hard to tell how many or how old they are, but an Oxfam America study found many start when they are under 18.
Baldemar Velasquez, president of the AFL-CIO's Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), said children who work to help their families get by typically start in their early teens - although sometimes, much younger.
"Seven, eight on up," he said. "We've seen kids this summer that were 13, 15 - and they'd tell us they'd worked in tobacco for seven years, five years."
The major tobacco companies all have policies against child labor, but a federal loophole intended for farm families leaves the practice in a legal gray area. Most growers insist they obey the law, to the best of their ability.
Velasquez said he worked harvesting tobacco as a teen, and started with his family at age 6, adding that "it was either that or not eating."
Families, often here illegally and paid low wages, are at the mercy of labor contractors, Velasquez said, adding that economic pressures mean farm owners and cigarette companies look the other way when crew leaders break the law.
"Doesn't matter to the crew leader, the labor contractor, because he gets the money from the harvest," Velasquez said. "He doesn't care how small the hands are that are putting the cut tobacco on the trailer, as long as the acres get done."
According to a separate report from Human Rights Watch, half of tobacco workers make less than minimum wage. It found 12-hour days are common and 16-hour days not unusual. The reports say the kids especially are vulnerable to green tobacco sickness, a type of nicotine poisoning. Velasquez says the victims get dizzy and nauseous – like a non-smoker with the blood nicotine of a pack-a-day habit.
"When you try to eat, nothing tastes right," he said. "Workers say they try to drink milk, because it's the only thing that they can consume when you get really, really sick."
Off the farms, the United States eliminated most child labor decades ago. Velasquez said the fights that unions won in the mills of North Carolina still have to be fought in the tobacco fields.
"These are symptoms of a broader labor problem," he said. "We used to have children in the mines of America, textile mills of America. When unions were formed, they negotiated away those conditions."
The Oxfam/FLOC report is online at oxfamamerica.org. The HRW report is at hrw.org.
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Advocates for foster families are pressing lawmakers to save the Family Urgent Response System from the budget ax.
California faces a $37.9 billion deficit and Gov. Gavin Newsom's initial proposal zeros out the program's $30 million budget.
Susanna Kniffen, senior director of child welfare policy for the nonprofit Children Now, said the program provides a 24-hour helpline for foster kids and their caregivers and funds a mobile emergency response unit in all 58 counties.
"We haven't seen a cut like that to foster care in a very long time. Decades," Kniffen pointed out. "Even when there are tough budget decisions to be made, generally you protect your children and you definitely protect your most vulnerable children, which are foster youth."
The state created the program in 2019. Then the pandemic hit, so counties got the mobile response teams up and running starting in 2021. California has about 46,000 children in the foster-care system. The helpline averages about 5,000 calls a year. More than a quarter involve requests for a team to come to the home.
Kniffen noted more and more foster youths and their caregivers are starting to rely on the program for support and conflict mediation.
"We finally started to get youth trusting it and using it and, all of a sudden, we're just sort of pulling the rug out," Kniffen argued. "It's going to be very difficult for the adults in the system but it's going to hit the youth the hardest because this is one of the only options that they have to call and get support for themselves."
This issue will be heard in legislative committees in the State Assembly on April 3, and in the state Senate on April 25. Lawmakers have until June 15 to pass a balanced budget.
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The new National Parent & Youth Helpline has already taken 6,700 calls, texts and live chats since its inception in January, and now the U.S. House of Representatives is considering a bill called House Resolution 7812 to fund it permanently.
Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., introduced the bill last Friday.
Lisa Pion-Berlin, president and CEO of Parents Anonymous, which runs the helpline, noted how the service has been helping.
"We have calls about gun violence. We have calls about suicide. We have calls about stress," Pion-Berlin outlined. "We have calls about kids' learning challenges. We have kids who feel lonely and depressed. We know youth suicide is up 20%."
The nation's more than 174 million parents and youths up to age 25 can call or text the helpline at 855-427-2736 to reach a trained counselor for help with emotional issues. People can also join the live chat on the website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Pion-Berlin emphasized the goal is to offer online, weekly, evidence-based emotional support groups to those in need around the country.
"They build what we call protective factors," Pion-Berlin explained. "That's resilience, social support, that's helping people deal with their underlying emotional issues, addresses substance abuse, domestic violence, and helps children flourish."
The bill would allocate $20 million a year to the program. So far it has attracted endorsements from the nonprofits Parents Anonymous, Zero to Three, and the Child Welfare League of America.
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Parents wanting to ensure their children have nutritious meals can serve as their best example, according to new data.
Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign involved looking at study participants' amount and availability of unhealthy beverages and food in their households. A Home Food Inventory -- a checklist of 190 items in 13 food categories used to monitor the food environment -- found processed foods, candy and microwaveable items were more attainable.
Jenny Barton, assistant research professor for the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University, said the study focused on the physical development of toddlers.
"The two-year-olds in this study are gaining mobility -- they're gaining autonomy -- to be able to walk around the house," Barton pointed out. "And then I think by age four, they are starting to be able to reach for things in the home, in the kitchen."
The home food inventory further examined how the location of fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator, freezer and inside cabinets can hinder a toddler's access to them, how often foods in the household are consumed, and how parents' interaction with their children during a meal affects a child's food habits.
Children often imitate their parents when it comes to food choices. A U.S. Department of Health report said it can take up to 10 attempts before children accept a new food. Barton noted her work followed the consumption of whole grains and refined grains. She concluded refined grains are eaten more often by children because parents tend to buy it more often.
"They're just not purchasing them, to the degree that we would like to see people purchasing whole grains," Barton emphasized. "That's probably helping explain some of that phenomenon in terms of children having similar diets as their parents."
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 report showed unhealthy dietary patterns starting at age 2-18 may lead to obesity and a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease in later life. The publication also advised parents to reduce or eliminate cereals with added sugar, switch from fried to roasted vegetables and substitute high-sodium meats with ground lean meats.
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