There are hundreds of thousands of child agricultural workers working in difficult and poor conditions in the United States of America. This is what emerges from a Human Rights Watch report titled Fingers to the Bone: The United States' Failure to Protect Child Farm Workers. This rights group has found that child workers are often forced to work between twelve and fourteen hours a day and are at risk of pesticide poisoning, effects of heat exposure, injuries and life-long health complications. life. However, the majority of the population that constitutes child workers is of Latino origin. This document seeks to demystify the issue of child labor in agriculture in the United States using information from Human Rights Watch. The type of rules governing minors working in agriculture have proven to be less stringent than those that exist in other sectors. of the economy. Unfortunately they allow children to work at a very young age and for longer periods in very dangerous situations than children working in other sectors. Previous research attests to the fact that agricultural work remains the most dangerous job available to children in the United States of America. This therefore implies that the laws of the country must be changed if the health, safety and upliftment of children is to be ensured. The federal law institutionalized in 1938 is the one responsible for exempting child workers from the minimum age and maximum hour requirement that protects other children. At the state level, eighteen of them have no minimum age to work in the fields, while others even have a shocking minimum requirement of nine or ten years. The Human Rights W report... middle of paper... already established laws, including minimum wage regulations, and the Environmental Protection Agency to safeguard children from contact with pesticides so more efficient (U.S. Department of Labor, 1996). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration must develop rigorous standards for camp sanitation, and all federal governments must raise the minimum age limit to at least fourteen. Works Cited http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2000/ 06/19/abusive-child-labour-found-us-agricultureNational Research Council. Committee on Pesticides in the Diet of Infants and Children. (1993). Pesticides in the diet of infants and children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. US Department of Labor. (1996). State workers' compensation laws. Washington, DC: Author, Employment Standards Administration, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.