Childhood Unbound Unit 5 Preview

UNIT 5. AGRICULTURE

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Agriculture Agriculture continues to be the most prevalent and most hazardous form of child labor globally and in the United States. This unit will make students aware of the issues associated with agriculture, such as the health effects of exposure to the deadly pesticides saturating our food system for both farmworkers and consumers. Children from farmworker families find it almost impossible to complete their education because of time missed working in the fields. Students will investigate the relationship between agriculture and migration patterns, due to a long-established reliance on extremely cheap labor performed by Central American migrants in U.S. agriculture.

Learning Outcomes: Identify what circumstances lead to children working in agriculture.

Explain the relationship between child labor in agriculture and other institutional inequities.

Critique the effectiveness of current protection measures and recommend future changes in the best interest of children.

Essential Questions: Who are the children working in agriculture?

Why is agriculture the largest sector of child labor in the United States?

What is the link between migration and children in the agricultural fields in the United States? How does the burden fall on poor and Indigenous children?

Are any of these children and their families citizens of the United States?

What are institutional barriers that affect children in the fields and their families?

What are current protections in place that protect the human rights of children who work in agriculture?

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Skills: Expand expository and narrative writing skills Apply investigative skills and analytical thinking

Lessons: Child labor in Agriculture Agriculture in the United States Institutional Barriers Protection of Children in the Fields

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Lesson 1 Child Labor in Agriculture Agriculture in the context of child labor refers to farming, forestry, aquaculture, and fisheries operations, as well as the post-harvest handling and marketing of produce. Worldwide, 70% of all child labor happens in agriculture. It is estimated that 43% of child laborers in agriculture are involved in hazardous work that puts their health and safety at immediate risk, according to the latest UNICEF-ILO report. And UNICEF USA estimates that 112 million children are working in agriculture today. Child labor is mostly found in the lowest level of agricultural value chains and informal settings, making it more difficult to tackle and to quantify.

Due to the specific characteristics of the labor, some of these children enter into work as young as 5 or 7 years old. Others have grown up accompanying their parents since they were in the womb and later carried in the fields. The ILO emphasizes that agriculture is one of the three most dangerous sectors in terms of work-related fatalities, non-fatal accidents, and occupational diseases. Child labor can be found at all stages of agricultural supply chains, affecting children, the reputation of companies and their profits, as well as the rural and agricultural development of entire communities.

The root cause of agricultural child labor is related to household poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to education, and the lack of access to agricultural technology that could improve working conditions for adults. Longstanding cultural attitudes permitting children to be involved in agricultural activities from an early age contribute to the problem too. In some cases, children work long hours, lift heavy weights, are exposed to pesticides and chemicals, and perform tasks inappropriate for their age that cause pain and injury. These are all in violation of Convention 182 against the Worst Forms of Child Labor, ratified by 187 countries. However, tackling this type of child labor is challenging because agriculture has been underregulated in many countries. When there are child labor regulations in force, usually there are also exemptions for the agricultural sector. This means that general health and safety laws do not protect these workers and national law breaches international child labor regulations and basic human rights standards.

An example of agricultural child labor is livestock keeping where children start herding and caring for animals at a very young age. These children are especially vulnerable to health problems derived from working long hours in extreme weather conditions, without access to proper equipment, poor hygiene and sanitation facilities that increase the risk of zoonotic diseases, as well as exposure to contamination, and chemical products. In addition to the dangers of handling animals, they usually use sharp tools and are exposed to bites or attacks from wild animals. Extended periods of isolation, fear of cattle raiders and punishments generate psychological stress that constitutes a major threat to the well-being of children.

Herding activities are incompatible with access to education, because it takes a large portion of the day,

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leaving no time for school.

Child labor in forestry happens mostly in remote areas and in temporary locations making the application of regulations and standards difficult. This increases vulnerability for children to become victims of exploitation; they have no access to trade union representation or a stable community/support system.

Lesson 1 Child Labor in Agriculture Children climb trees, harvest fruits or spices, plant in nurseries, do logging, cut rubber, and do other forestrelated activities such as collecting, loading, and transporting firewood by foot. This work is often informal and sometimes even illegal, exposing them to a range of dangers and abuse, according to the FAO. Fishing is one of the most dangerous occupations and is also an industry where child labor is prevalent. , According to the ILO, kids engage in fishing, processing and marketing, boat-building, net-making and mending, and feeding, guarding, and harvesting fish in ponds and cages.

Historically in the United States, children worked on their family farms as a means of economic survival for their family. Due to that fact, children working in agriculture are not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Even today, most farms in the United States are small family farms (defined as generating an annual farm income of under $250,000). However the vast majority of child labor in the U.S. is now found in huge commercial enterprises, growing high-value crops like fruits and vegetables. The U.S. tobacco industry is one of the most dangerous agricultural sectors for child farmworkers because of pesticide exposure and nicotine poisoning, according to HRW. Changes in legislation to include child labor protections in agriculture have run into strong opposition from the agricultural industry. A bill to prevent children from working in the tobacco industry is currently stalled in Congress.

Due diligence with clear provisions to eliminate child labor in agriculture should be arranged in all trade policies affecting business conduct and all agricultural supply chains. Education on the topic increases consumer and citizen awareness, making it possible to set up private and public sector codes and certification schemes, and technologies that ensure traceability and transparency of products along the chain. Companies have an enormous incentive to take action to protect against reputational and economic losses arising from bans on imported goods due to child labor. Consumers also have a part to play. When consumers demand certified organic and fair trade foods, companies have a strong incentive to clean up their supply chains.

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TERMS TO KNOW

Agricultural Child Labor

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What is child labor in agriculture?

SUGGESTED RESOURCES The Boy who Harnessed the Wind Infostories Child labor in agriculture Former child laborers tell their stories in Jordan UN Global Compact Food and Agriculture Business Principles Child Labor makes your ethically certified chocolate Child Labor in the Coffee and Sugar Industry Play Taonga: The island farm and understand the supply chain in trade Play Farmville to help students understand the supply chain in trade: buying, selling, capacity inventory, cash and events management, supply chain demand and metrics.

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Lesson 1 Child Labor in Agriculture ACTIVITY INTRODUCTION: The Goal of Education This activity will introduce students to the harsh reality that is child labor in agriculture. By exposing them to real stories and startling statistics, this lesson will serve as an important introduction for the rest of the unit.

PREPARATION BEFORE THE ACTIVITY: Familiarize yourself with the information in the summary preceding this lesson.

ACTIVITY DURATION: 45 MINUTES ACTIVITY OUTLINE: 1. Discuss the high prevalence of child labor in agriculture and introduce students to the issues discussed in the summary preceding this lesson. Highlight that: 70% of child laborers work in agriculture.

There are approximately 112 million children working in agriculture today.

43% of child laborers in agriculture are involved in hazardous labor.

2. Ask students to consider the physical toll working in agriculture has on children.

3. Draw the outline of a person on the board (or a stick figure) Starting with their feet and moving up, discuss the consequences working in the fields can have on a child’s body. Label each body part with how it can be affected by working in the fields all day. Use student suggestions and the information available on pages 24-27 of the Employers’ and Workers’ Handbook on Hazardous Child Labour, Geneva, 2011.

Feet: Working barefoot, cuts, infection.

Stomach: Lack sufficient nutrition and hydration.

Back: Carrying loads that are far too heavy, wearing out joints.

Hands: Callouses, injury from sharp instruments.

Lungs: Exposure to pesticides.

Brain: Exposure to pesticides, developmental issues.

4. Once the entire stick figure is filled out, discuss how common hazardous child labor is in the agriculture sector. At your own discretion, tell students some of the following stories (with a content warning).

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An 11-year-old girl, illegally employed on a farm in Ceres, Western Cape, South Africa, fell off a tractor, resulting in the amputation of her left leg.

An eight-year-old boy harvesting tomatoes in a field in Mexico was run over and killed by a tractor.

A 15-year-old migrant farmworker in the United States was fatally electrocuted when a 30-foot section of aluminum irrigation pipe he was moving came into contact with an overhead power line. Two other child laborers with him sustained serious electrical burns to their hands and feet.

Lesson 1 Child Labor in Agriculture A 17-year-old worker clearing out a grain elevator in the United States was engulfed and buried alive in grain.

5. Discuss with the class why they think we don’t hear about these stories. Why aren’t these children on the news? How are they still being forced to work?

6. Ask students to write a response. It should focus on either the immense physical impact working in agriculture can have on children, or the headlines you shared with the class.

INDEPENDENT LEARNING ACTIVITY (IN CLASS OR AS AN ASSIGNMENT) Reintroduce students to Abdoulaye and Faiza, two child laborers whose stories were shared in unit one (pages 23 and 28).

Explain to your class that they will be re-reading these stories, in the context of agriculture. As they read, have students follow along with worksheet 5.1 and write down: Specific facts and statistics pertaining to agriculture.

Things that surprised them.

Questions they have.

Laws that are supposed to be keeping these children out of the fields.

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Lesson 2 Agriculture in the United States Farmworkers are the backbone of the United States as they grow and harvest the fruits and vegetables we eat. The early Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the crucial role of these workers but disregarded the fact that many of them are children. Yearly, an estimated 2-3 million farmworkers and their families work in fields and factories that process fresh fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural goods. Agriculture in the United States represents an industry worth billions of dollars, yet in most states, agricultural workers earn less than minimum wage, according to Farmworker Justice. They struggle to make a living without access to the most basic social protections and healthcare, due to systemic problems with the immigration system. The well-deserved title of essential workers did not come with protections for the hidden farm workers of America and their children.

Popular culture portrays life on small farms as idyllic, work carried out safely by loving hard-working American families, a narrative that does not reflect reality anymore. The agricultural industry systematically and successfully undermines lobbying efforts for child labor protections for children in agriculture by appealing to the outdated notion of traditional small farms. The reality of today’s agricultural sector is different, aided by the mechanization of processes that allow for bigger farms, often owned by distant corporations who employ farm operators and hire immigrant workers to maximize productivity and profits in a competitive international market.

Agricultural labor is complex and performed in a working environment that is hazardous for adult workers and even more so for children. Yet historically, children have been permitted to work in agriculture at younger ages, for longer hours, and under more hazardous conditions than other working children. Under international law, a child is anyone under the age of 18. International labor standards have established that children under 18 should be prohibited from hazardous work.

In the United States, child labor protections in non-agricultural settings have progressively expanded, but this is not the case in agriculture. Children in the agricultural sector remain excluded from basic protections provided to workers in other industries under Federal employment laws. The efforts to eradicate child labor in the US started in the 1900s. Multiple groups pushed for compulsory education for all children; the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) helped prevent some child labor, but it exempted children working in agriculture from child labor protections, a distinction that remains to this day.

Moreover, in rural America, children as young as 12 years old may work legally, for unlimited hours, on any farm as long as they have their parent’s consent and it is outside of school hours. Children of farm owners or operators have fewer restrictions and therefore fewer protections from child labor. This means that they can

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work in “particularly hazardous jobs” at any age, while other children must be 16 years or older to work at “particularly hazardous jobs.” At 16 years old, farmworker children can do any job on a farm‌, regardless of health and developmental risks such as exposure to pesticides, toxins, for example by working in tobacco fields, or health problems because of repetitive motions.

Lesson 2 Agriculture in the United States Jobs considered too dangerous for teenagers in non-agricultural settings are perfectly legal in agriculture: a 16-year-old who is barred from driving a forklift in a store warehouse could do so on a farm without restriction.

The first federal restriction on child labor in agriculture was introduced in 1949 when Congress amended the FLSA to restrict children under the age of 16 from working in agriculture during school hours. Thanks to the fight of many organized workers in 1996, the FLSA was amended to prohibit children under the age of sixteen from engaging in hazardous agricultural work. The fight to protect these children is far from finished. Even today many organizations are pushing for amendments to the FLSA to regulate and protect children in agricultural child labor. OSHA safety regulations prohibit hazardous child labor, but there aren’t enough site examiners and enforcement is weak. Adequate funding for labor inspectors is critical.

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TERMS TO KNOW

Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Agricultural Employment Restrictions

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

Why is agriculture the largest sector for child labor in the U.S.?

SUGGESTED RESOURCES The Harvest (available for rent) Fingers to the Bone: Child Farmworkers in the United States Children in Hazardous Work – Teens of the Tobacco Fields Who is Dolores Huerta?

Who was César Chávez?

Adios Amor - Maria Moreno

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Lesson 2 Agriculture in the U.S. ACTIVITY INTRODUCTION: The Harvest is a heart-wrenching and in-depth look at farmwork and migrant farmworker families in US Agriculture. Depending on class time, either show students the entire film or have them watch the included trailer.

PREPARATION BEFORE THE ACTIVITY: Either set up to show the full length or 7 minute version of The Harvest in the classroom or share the link with your students so they can watch it on their own time.

The Harvest Clips 7 minute version ACTIVITY DURATION: 20-25 MINUTES ACTIVITY OUTLINE: 1. Introduce the issue of agriculture in the United States. Talk about migrant farm workers and the prevalence of child labor in farmwork.

2. Ask students if they had heard of child laborers in the US in the past, if not, why do they think that is?

3. Discuss the loopholes that allow for children to work and define: Family Farms Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Agricultural Employment Restrictions Pesticides 4. Show The Harvest. Depending on class time, either show students the entire film or have them watch the clips included in suggested resources . Have students take notes throughout. Ask them to write down: Direct quotes that stood out to them. Maybe they elicited an emotional response or introduced them to a new idea?

Facts and statistics that surprised them.

Specific people and stories that they connected to or felt moved by.

5. After the movie, discuss it with your students. What surprised them? What did they learn? How did it

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make them feel?

INDEPENDENT LEARNING ACTIVITY (IN CLASS OR AS AN ASSIGNMENT) Students will investigate photos from The Harvest at the Romano Archives at the University of Connecticut.

Have students search through the archives of photos of children working in agriculture worldwide. Give them worksheet 5.2 (pg.???), which will ask them to choose a photo to craft a response to.

Lesson 2 Agriculture in the U.S. INDEPENDENT LEARNING ACTIVITY (IN CLASS OR AS AN ASSIGNMENT) Students will investigate photos from The Harvest at the Romano Archives at the University of Connecticut.

Have students search through the archives of photos of children working in agriculture worldwide. Give

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them worksheet 5.2 (pg. 148), which will ask them to choose a photo to craft a response to.

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Lesson 3 Children in the Fields The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) based on figures gathered by the Department of Labor estimates there are between 400,000 and 500,000 child farmworkers in the United States. However, it is difficult to know exactly how many there are. A majority of children working in the fields are from Latin American immigrant families, many of them undocumented. A labor shortage during World War II resulted in an accord between the United States and Mexico known as the “Bracero Program” that allowed more than 4 million Mexican men to work legally in US agriculture and railroads under shortterm contracts, as stated by the Library of Congress.

The program resulted in an influx of documented and undocumented laborers, resulting in 22 years of cheap labor from Mexican ‘campesinos,’ in exchange for remittances to their families. Even though there were protocols to protect them from discrimination and substandard wages, Braceros experienced unfair charges for room and board, deducted pay, and exposure to deadly chemicals. The Bracero Program was described as a “legalized slavery” by a former Department of Labor official, Lee G. Williams, and is the precursor for the current H2A visa program or guest worker program. It established the reliance on cheap labor of migrants and child labor in farm work. The agricultural industry has a long-standing record of structural racism - understood as the way laws are written or enforced - which disadvantages racial and ethnic minorities in access to opportunity and resources.

Migration is often driven by multidimensional poverty. Many people who work in agricultural jobs have to move regularly from farm to farm following the harvest, in order to work enough to sustain their families.

Essentially, farm work is seasonal and dependent upon crop harvests and weather, which creates an unstable living wage for workers and their families who live below the poverty line. Children are usually not employed directly by companies, but rather work to help their families meet quotas and production targets.

When farmers hire migrants for piecework at less than a living wage, they don’t give them paid sick days or access to healthcare and medical attention when injured during work. The precarious working conditions gravely affect their health from prolonged exposure to pesticides and other chemicals that are sprayed while they are working in the fields. This causes serious health complications and higher rates of cancer.

Employers take advantage of undocumented workers who are not in a position to demand humane conditions or denounce inhumane treatment out of fear of deportation and family separations.

Many of these farmworker children were born in the US and are therefore US citizens, but some remain vulnerable due to their parent’s irregular migration status. Others are American citizens. Nowadays, most

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migrant farmworkers are considered “settled,” meaning that they work at a single location within 75 miles of where they live, according to the Economic Research Service of the USDA. However the most vulnerable farmworker families still “follow the crop,” moving from state to state during the picking season.

Lesson 3 Children in the Fields According to the Children in the Fields Campaign, following the harvest can make it difficult for children to stay current on academic responsibilities. Food insecurity, lack of institutional support to access education and school supplies, and language and cultural barriers can be difficult to overcome. In most cases, Spanish is the dominant language but many others speak Indigenous languages, increasing their isolation and adding to the difficulty of accessing education. Schools are not prepared to offer linguistic or culturally appropriate programs and documents, leaving these children at a disadvantage. This widens the gap of social participation and ‘fitting in’ with significant consequences for children’s development, health, and self-esteem. To improve the well-being of farmworker children, policy solutions are needed to address the structural roots of these challenges, including meaningful immigration reform, improved regulatory protections for workers, universal healthcare and childcare services, as well as targeted outreach and education programs.

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TERMS TO KNOW

Bracero Program Migrant farmworkers

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What is the link between migration and children in the agricultural fields in the United States?

How does the burden fall on poor and Indigenous children?

Are any of these children and their families citizens of the United States?

What are institutional barriers that affect children in the fields and their families?

SUGGESTED RESOURCES Children in the Fields in the United States Food chains - Farm Workers & Supply Chains Children of Immigrants: The American Promise For Many Child Farmworkers, Getting an Education Is Almost Impossible

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Lesson 3 Children in the Fields ACTIVITY INTRODUCTION: This activity will introduce students to what it’s like to live as a child from a migrant farmworker family in the United States. After completing this activity, students will be able to identify the common barriers and circumstances that push children into the fields.

PREPARATION BEFORE THE ACTIVITY: Review the art and essay contest portion of the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Program’s (AFOP’s) Children in the Fields Campaign website.

ACTIVITY DURATION: 45 MINUTES ACTIVITY OUTLINE: 1. Introduce students to R ​ aquel Perez, a migrant farmworker in Texas. First, show her story (7:22) then, show the follow up (7:03).

2. Discuss migrant farm work. How does it affect a child’s education? Health? Social and emotional development?

3. Tell students to access AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign website. Direct them to the art and essay contest portion.

4. Have each student pick an art or essay contest winner. Have them familiarize themselves with this child and their history. What circumstances took place that led to them having to work in the fields? What are their hopes, their dreams, their fears?

5. Give students worksheet 5.3 that lays out common barriers that force migrant farmworker families into the fields. Ex: Immigration (Documentation), Healthcare, Language Proficiency, Finances.

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6. Ask students to highlight what barriers are at play in the case of their child? What led them into the field?

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Lesson 4 Protection of Children in the Fields In the United States farmworkers of whom the majority are migrants, are among the most vulnerable because they are among the poorest. They do not receive any employment-related benefits, such as health care, disability insurance, vacation, or pension. Farmworkers are excluded from many workers’ compensation laws, which are regulated by the states instead of the federal government. Furthermore, they are also subjected to deplorable living conditions, including overcrowding, poor ventilation and light, a lack of indoor plumbing, and poor field sanitation and work hygiene. Many civil society organizations work to promote the eradication of American child labor on different fronts, for example, through pushing for changes in legislation and public policy.

Promoting social protection programs and conditional benefits that address economic and non-economic drivers of child labor is not only preventive but tackles the root causes that perpetuate child labor in agriculture. Another solution is to provide incentives to parents and caregivers to send children to school.

Focusing on changes in public policy to tackle poverty, hunger, and vulnerability can be done through schools, where kids can be fed. It is necessary to incentivize schooling and reduce the necessity for children to work by removing the barriers to access education, particularly for girls. A whole new generation can be lifted out of poverty if given the opportunity.

Along with social programs, changes in current laws are needed. People from all backgrounds have united to push for the changes required to protect children from child labor in US fields. Amendments to remove exemptions from the FLSA have been proposed, so that all workers receive minimum wage and overtime protections, regardless of industry or type of worker, especially in high-risk industries such as agriculture. As mentioned in the previous summary, exemptions to the FLSA on agricultural child labor are not consonant with the minimum protections offered by international human rights law.

In a similar way, the passage of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act was a step in the right direction. The law still does not allow collective bargaining and does not apply to smaller employers. It does, however, provide some important protections. Most significantly, it requires that agricultural employers disclose terms of employment at the time of recruitment and comply with those terms, and that employers who use farm labor contractors confirm that the contractors are registered with and licensed by the Department of Labor. However, this does not offer enough protection due to the power differential between the isolated and unprotected farmworkers who are not insured to meet basic federal safety standards.

Fostering companies’ responsibility and accountability for their supply chains and promoting respect for

UNIT 5: LESSON 4

worker voice and other labor rights is crucial to push for better working conditions and child labor-free products. Different organizations have been pushing over the years for amendments such as the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARE). The text of the new legislation would require the U.S. Secretary of Labor to determine the specific types of farm work that are safe enough for 14- and 15-year-olds and it

Lesson 4 Protection of Children in the Fields would restrict those under 18 from performing hazardous farm work. It also strengthens regulations that protect children from pesticide exposure, according to the Child Labor Coalition.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations prohibit the spraying of pesticides when any unprotected worker is in the field or may be exposed through drift. The agency sets restricted entry intervals specifying the amount of time after pesticide application that workers should not enter treated areas and requires basic pesticide safety training for all workers. However, EPA regulations make no special consideration for children, which is a reason to keep pushing to protect them.

The US State Department Trafficking in Persons report raises concerns about children in agriculture as the third largest group of potential trafficking victims. Unaccompanied youths sometimes start out in agriculture and end up working in cities, held hostage by their immigration status and easily coerced by traffickers into working in massage parlors, as domestics, in restaurants, stuck in menial low-wage and often illegal work.

Another way to protect children in the fields is securing special protection. For example, the Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provides - under certain requisites - work authorization and protection from deportation renewable every 2 years. This allows “Dreamers” to live without fear, enabling them to attain higher education and therefore better jobs that allow them to contribute to their families and communities, as well as buying homes and starting new businesses. However, DACA does not provide a path to citizenship for recipients. The urgency to provide a route to citizenship is clear, and a permanent solution is needed. For this, the new version was approved by the House of Representatives on March 18, 2021, and could go to a vote before the Senate. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) could secure the Dreamers permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship, allowing undocumented children and their families access to basic protections to help them move from surviving to thriving and out of the grave risks of child labor.

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TERMS TO KNOW

DACA DREAM Act CARE Act Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What are current protections in place that protect the human rights of children who work in agriculture?

SUGGESTED RESOURCES Build Back Better Act Farm Workforce Modernization Act Q&A- DACA & Dreamers Who are the Dreamers?

Essential Farmworkers Risk Infection and Deportation.

Here's Why. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 26, prohibits discrimination.

The International Labour Organization Convention No. 182, Article 3.d prohibits work likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children under age 18.

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Lesson 4 Protections of Children in the Fields

ACTIVITY INTRODUCTION: Building off of the knowledge they gained in lesson three, this lesson has students investigate the effectiveness of current protections in place that should be keeping children out of the fields.

PREPARATION BEFORE THE ACTIVITY: Tell students to access AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign website. Direct them to the art and essay contest portion.

Access to AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign website ACTIVITY DURATION: 20-25 MINUTES ACTIVITY OUTLINE: 1. Tell students to look back to the student example they worked with in the previous lesson on the art and essay contest portion of AFOP’s Children in the Fields Campaign website.

2. Ask students to investigate what laws or protections are in place that should keep these children out of the fields.

3. How about NGOs? What NGOs are local and helping students overcome some of the barriers they highlighted on worksheet 5.3?

4. In a Socratic style seminar, ask students to act as an advocate from an NGO and speak on behalf of the children they have gotten to know. Have them critique the effectiveness of current protections (ex. policies, NGO’s, etc.) that are in place and should be protecting their child. What systems exist that should be keeping this child in school and out of the fields? Why aren't they working?

5. Once everyone has gotten a chance to advocate for their child and point out what is not working, transition the conversation to the future. Lead a class discussion in which students have the opportunity to

UNIT 5: LESSON 4

recommend future changes in the best interest of children.

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Cocoa, palm oil, coffee, tea, vanilla…these are just a few common items you may have in your kitchen that are products of child labor in agriculture. Plus, did you know? Children pick almost every fruit and vegetable you eat, most commonly tobacco, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and blueberries.

Look at the stories of Abdoulaye (page 23 of Unit 1) and Faiza (page 28 of Unit 1).

WORKSHEET 5.1: ABDOULAYE AND FAIZA

Abdoulaye is 11, from Côte D’Ivoire and working on a cocoa plantation. Faiza is 13, living in Turkey, and in fear of being forced to pick hazelnuts. Both are examples of the millions of children working in agriculture. If you have read these stories before, reread them through the lens of agriculture, keeping in mind what you have learned in class so far.

As you read, take notes on the following: Facts and statistics pertaining to agriculture in the countries these children are in Protections in place that SHOULD be protecting these children What surprised you? What stood out?

After reading, write a short response summarizing the circumstances that led to the child being exploited.

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Too often, in work surrounding child labor, we get caught up in numbers and statistics. It is important to remember that the children picking our food are real kids with real stories.

Access The Harvest photos from the Romano Archives at the University of Connecticut. You will see many many photos of children working. Keep in mind viewing this content may be difficult, talk to your teacher if you are in need of guidance or resources.

Go through the photos and choose one that stands out to you. Tell the story behind the photo.

Tell us about the child in this photo. What they are doing, yes…are they picking onions? Tomatoes? But go deeper. Give them a story.

Use the questions below to help you, and get creative! Tell us more.

What is their name?

How old are they?

What do they like or dislike?

Do they have any brothers or sisters?

What led to this photo being taken?

Where are they from?

What is their dream?

WORKSHEET 5.2

What do they want to be when they grow up?

Once you have created a story for your photo, fast forward 20 years. Where is this person now? What are they doing? Did they achieve their dream?

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Go online to the art and essay contest portion of the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Program’s Children in the Fields Campaign website.

Pick a student entry you connect to or continue working with one you chose for the previous lesson.

There are many common barriers that force children into the fields. Read the story you chose and make a list of the barriers that contributed to your child being in the fields. Reflect on how these barriers, often outside of these children's control, influence their circumstances. Ex: Immigration

WORKSHEET 5.3

(Documentation), Healthcare, Language Proficiency, Finances.

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Now that you have investigated some of the common barriers forcing your child into farmwork, investigate further what systems are in place that SHOULD be keeping them out of the fields. Where are they located? What laws or protections are in place locally? Nationally? How about NGOs? What NGOs are local and helping students overcome some of the barriers you highlighted on worksheet 5.3? Use online resources such as the Farmworker Justice wage map and other reputable online sources.

Act as an advocate from a local NGO and speak on behalf of your child.

Prepare to critique the effectiveness of current protections (ex. policies, NGOs, etc.) that are in place. What systems exist that should be keeping this child in

WORKSHEET 5.4

school and out of the fields? Why aren't they working?