Farm Safety (con't): I've been to Romania. I know.

That, Dear Readers, is an example of a logical fallacy known as the "Anecdotal Fallacy":

You used a personal experience or an isolated example instead of a sound argument or compelling evidence.


It's often much easier for people to believe someone's testimony as opposed to understanding complex data and variation across a continuum. Quantitative scientific measures are almost always more accurate than personal perceptions and experiences, but our inclination is to believe that which is tangible to us, and/or the word of someone we trust over a more 'abstract' statistical reality.


Example: Jason said that that was all cool and everything, but his grandfather smoked, like, 30 cigarettes a day and lived until 97 - so don't believe everything you read about meta analyses of methodologically sound studies showing proven causal relationships.

From Your Logical Fallacy Is which simply explains 24 common logical fallacies. 

In this case, however, I have been to a Romanian farm and I do know. It has nothing whatsoever to do with The Children's safety.

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In the last few days, the general blogosphere has become aware of the Department of Labor's attempts to prohibit kids from working on farms-- including (and especially) family farms. I recently posted about it here. Over a month ago I posted some thoughts on the 80+ pages of DOL regulations. Those posts had a bunch of crappy old stuff about tool/farm safety, etc. (The most recent post has links to my posts and other relevant sources.)

I am happy to report that the new regulations-- which would have prohibited kids under the age of 16 from using a power screw driver-- have been scuttled. I'm sure you've seen mention of the decision already, but if not, read about it at The Hill or PJMedia. (Shoot. I had some blogger probs and the links didn't transfer.)

From PJMedia:

"The decision to withdraw this rule – including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ – was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms,” Labor said in a statement. “To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama administration.”

 

While not targeting kids under 16 who work in “agricultural vocations,” the Labor Department said it would be setting up an “educational program” regarding kids on farms.

From The Hill:

“[T]he Departments of Labor and Agriculture will work with rural stakeholders — such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, the Future Farmers of America, and 4-H to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers and promote safer agricultural working practices,” the Labor Department said.

As someone once said, "Are you serious?"

It has nothing to do with safety. These organizations already have safety education programs. I know this. They are advertised in the newspaper. Seriously, it's not as if parents and other adults in farming communities want kids to get hurt.

I am not alone in hypothesizing that it is about family farms vs. corporate "farms." [insert missing link] Nor am I alone in noticing the eery, although more subtle (maybe?), similarities to totalitarian takeovers.

"The People's Palace" in Bucharest, the world's largest civilian building (Image from Wikipedia)

Mr. Big Food and I once traveled to Bucharest, and while there, were invited to celebrate a National Holiday at a farm outside of the city. I think we were celebrating Ceaușescu's death. (Wow. Good thing this isn't a political bog. This guy was one nasty guy. I'm glad to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.) This was November, 2005, I think. The farm was again privately owned, by our hosts, but it had been a collective farm, after it was a private farm somewhere before 1949 or so.* Our hostess took me-- in the dark-- to the top of the Guard Tower, where men with guns used to pick off starving Romanians who wandered onto the farm to steal fruit. As I recall, the farm had some nice old orchards.

We had a lovely meal. Perhaps the best meal I've ever had in my life. Very elegant, too. There was no central heat, and only something that resembled running water. But there was roe (poor man's caviar) and cheese and soup and fish and a main dish and desert-- all provided by the farm-- with each course paired with a homemade beverage. The Romanian version of palinka is divine. It was a working farm. Everything was served in china or silver or some crappy old heirloom piece of pottery. It was elegant in the scientific sense of elegance.

We were in the company of a small company of Romanians. They were our hosts. I wasn't about to ask how the sterling had survived.

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So, if you want to control the world, make it impossible to have an elegant dinner on a farm outside of Bucharest, Romania in 2005.

OR

Don't let kids use cordless screwdrivers.

How hard is that?

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FAIL.

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* I need to add this. We are acquainted with a few bona fide Romanians. I've wanted to write a bit about the Romanian farm experience for a while, and so I've occasionally picked up an encyclopedia or run a few bing searches on things related to Romania and Bucharest and Ceaușescu. The history as told by our acquaintances does not cohere well with what's in the public domain.