1.  What rules proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor are farmers opposing?

2.  For what reasons are farmers opposed to the Labor Department's proposed rules?

3.  What does the Department of Labor say is the aim of the proposed regulations?

4.  a) How many farms are there in the U.S.?
b)  What percent of farms are family owned?

5.  From paragraph 10 of the article:  "Although the childhood injury rate on farms fell 59% from 1998 to 2009, according to the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, Wis., agriculture still has the second-highest fatality rate among youth workers after mining, and that rate is nearly six times the average across all industries."
What impression do you get about farm work from the the Wall Street Journal reporter's information?

6.  Read the following statistics from "Injuries to Youth on Farms and Safety Recommendations"  (From a 2009 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report. Find the pdf document link at: cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2009-117.)

• In 2006, 2.1 million farms were in operation in the U.S.
• There was an estimated 1.1 million youth living on these farms, 307,000 youth hired to work on the farm, and 29.3 million youth who visited a farm.
• Over 25% (571,000) of farms reported having youth less than 20 years old living on them.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

• In 2009, there were 13 fatalities among farm workers under the age of 16
• In 2010, there were 16 fatalities among farm workers under the age of 16

What do you conclude about the dangers posed to workers under the age of 16 who work on a farm?