"What it really comes down to is small fingers picking the smaller fruits and vegetables," said Joel Stonington, a recent graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
In Michigan, a legal aid attorney who works with migrant families, Teresa Hendricks, said the enforcement of the federal child labor law is "very lax."
ABC News Investigation: The Blueberry Children
Children as Young as 5 and 6 Working in the Fields of Large Blueberry Grower; Walmart Severs Ties, Feds Levy Fines
By AVNI PATEL, ANGELA M. HILL, ASA ESLOCKER and BRIAN ROSS
Brian Ross Investigative Unit
Oct. 30, 2009—Walmart and the Kroger supermarket chain have severed ties with one of the country's major blueberry growers after an ABC News investigation found children, including one as young as five-years-old, working in its fields.
The children were discovered at the Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company, in South Haven, Michigan, this summer by graduate school students working with ABC News as fellows with the Carnegie Corporation.
A five-year-old girl, named Suli, was seen lugging two heavy buckets of blueberries picked by her parents and brothers, aged seven and eight.
An 11-year-old boy in the Adkin fields told the Carnegie fellows he had been picking blueberries since the age of eight.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE CHILDREN FOUND WORKING IN THE FIELDS.
The owner of the company, Randy Adkin, was once featured on a Walmart billboard advertising his "locally produced and locally sold" blueberries.
"Walmart will not tolerate the use of child labor," said a spokesperson who said the retailer was unaware of the children at the Adkin facility until contacted by ABC News.
"We will not purchase any additional product from Adkin Blue ribbon Packing Company pending the outcome of an investigation by our ethical sourcing team," the Walmart spokesperson said.
Separately, the Department of Labor cited Adkin this week for violating federal child labor laws. Inspectors reported they found a six-year-old picking blueberries in Adkin's fields this summer.
As part of the ABC News investigation, the four Carnegie fellows spent weeks in fruit and vegetable fields in Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina.
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no doubt Nicholas Kristoff is happy
after all, he has been a strong advocate for the notion that child labor is a path out of poverty for people in lesser developed countries
Why not? Kristoff believes
Why not? Kristoff believes in America and thinks other nations should follow in its footsteps. Like slavery, child labor is a huge part of what built the American economic system, just as integral to building the great wealth of our brahmin classes.
shocker?
not really. this is common practice in third world countries and obviously still goes on here in the u.s. sad but true.
What about Safeway/Randall's?
Assuming it's not a vast Walmart/Kroger conspiracy (planting the kids to get a better deal from the growers-- wotta TV movie that would make), glad to see the grocery chains didn't try to make excuses. My family noticed a real dip in Safeway's blueberry prices over the past couple of years compared to the neighborhood stores.
Not much of a council, then, is it??
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