An awful substitution: putting children into jobs formerly held by deported immigrants

Let’s Get Child Labor Off Our Dinner Plates

By Todd Larsen, Charlotte Tate 

When deciding what to make for dinner, many of us think about how to balance making something affordable, delicious, and healthy. And we might consider ethical questions, like whether our food is locally sourced, our meat is humanely raised, or our meals have a low climate impact..

We probably don’t wonder whether child labor is involved. But unfortunately, that’s increasingly likely. In recent years, federal investigations have uncovered children working in dangerous conditions to create the food we eat.

Tyson, Perdue, Cargill, and JBS have all been found to have children working in slaughterhouses. Many of these children are immigrants who are unlikely to speak up when they’re in danger. They need these jobs to survive, but the jobs put their lives at risk.

Children all over the country, some as young as 10, are working in agriculture, restaurants, and meatpacking. There are an estimated 300,000-500,000 children working in agriculture alone.

Their jobs can be dangerous — kids often go to school with burns from restaurant stoves or cleaning chemicals. In the last two years, at least three children have died on the job.

Fueling this rise are politicians attempting to roll back child labor restrictions. They insist that children will benefit from these “opportunities to work.”

But child labor involves work that’s harmful to children’s development and health — like cleaning dangerous machinery in a slaughterhouse overnight, or being exposed to hazardous chemicals. Other kids may simply work so many hours that they fall behind in school and drop out.

Child labor puts an additional strain on local health care, education, and social services when kids who are injured or fail to keep up at school. It also harms the labor market by depressing wages — and puts businesses that actually abide by labor laws or ethical standards at a competitive disadvantage.

Some federal and state laws, such as federal “youth wage laws,” even allow businesses to pay children and teenagers less than adult wages for the first 90 days of employment. This lets companies increase their bottom line at the expense of children and their communities.

Under the Biden administration, the Department of Labor issued multi-million-dollar fines and carried out investigations that were widely covered in the media, which served as a deterrent. But it remains unclear if the Trump administration will follow suit.

States are also backsliding. Many are lowering the ages that children can work in unsafe jobs and increasing the hours they can work. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 31 states have introduced bills to weaken child labor protections in recent years.

Time and time again, we’ve seen companies violate laws and rights when they know they can get away with it. But regardless of what the administration does, we can ensure that corporations still feel pressure to uphold human rights.

At our organization, we’ve seen how campaigns where people shift their purchases to more responsible companies — and speak out against irresponsible ones — can send a strong message to corporations that they need to move in a more ethical direction.

For instance, consumers sounded the alarm on child labor in cocoa, resulting in some of the world’s largest chocolate companies making commitments to address child labor concerns. And consumers are increasingly looking for more ethical options, such as small chocolate brands dedicated to fair and direct trade.

At GreenAmerica.org, you can sign a petition to get child labor off our dinner plates and send a message to Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and Perdue to strengthen their policies and procedures around child labor. Consumers can also take action in their state to oppose legislation weakening child labor protections and supporting positive bills.

Together, we can ensure that multi-billion-dollar companies don’t profit from the exploitation of children. Making sure you and your family can enjoy delicious meals shouldn’t come at the cost of other children’s lives and futures.

Todd Larsen, Charlotte Tate: Todd Larsen is the Executive Co-Director for Consumer and Corporate Engagement at Green America. Charlotte Tate is Green America’s Labor Justice Campaigns Director. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.