Teachers info sheet on cows and climate change

N.Yorks.

Member
That really helpful stuff. My other halfs a teacher and I go in and teach about climate change and how farmers can reverse many of the issues around carbon emissions. I often get a know it all vegan teacher who starts questioning me on methane emissions. We always end up drawing a big carbon cycle and get the kids to teach the teacher about where the carbon goes. ? Think I've blown a few minds with GCSE level geography.
Hope you don't just focus on the carbon cycle. There's the N cycle that is running in the soil which sees a lot of N transformations. There's up to date research now saying that conventional arable, which doesn't actively increase soil carbon and relies on artificial N emits high levels of Nitrous Oxide a potent green house gas. However, the same work shows conservation/regen ag systems and organic systems as increasing soil carbon, however because there is more soil organic matter (C) the microbial breakdown of it releases large amounts of Nitrous Oxide, so cancelling out any gain in reducing atmospheric carbon.

Seems that we're just being too simplistic in solely looking at soil carbon - it isn't the big solution that we all hoped it might be.

Of course there are many benefits to having higher soil organic matter levels, which we all know about, so it's not a bad thing to do - but claiming a net reduction in global warming potential, not good, and misleading to suggest otherwise.
 

delilah

Member
Day 1 of COP tomorrow. First day back after half term too. You would imagine every school will be doing an assembly or lesson on it.
Just as well the teachers will have the attached handy guide telling them what to tell the kids: eat less meat and dairy.
Alternatively, of course, teachers looking for the UK ag angle on COP will go to our fb pages.

https://www.facebook.com/NFUSchools/

https://www.facebook.com/WeEatBalanced/

tumbleweed.jpg
 

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BredRedHfd

Member
BASIS
Location
NE Derbyshire
Day 1 of COP tomorrow. First day back after half term too. You would imagine every school will be doing an assembly or lesson on it.
Just as well the teachers will have the attached handy guide telling them what to tell the kids: eat less meat and dairy.
Alternatively, of course, teachers looking for the UK ag angle on COP will go to our fb pages.

https://www.facebook.com/NFUSchools/

https://www.facebook.com/WeEatBalanced/

View attachment 994620
Yep, my little one already mentioned she had COP homework 🙄
 

Ali_Maxxum

Member
Location
Chepstow, Wales
Some of our younger members still in school in YFC get to telling me about the stuff they are 'taught' in school. And wow.... honest to god am I glad I'm not there now because I would probably be continually sent out for not accepting the propaganda and total trash they are 'teaching' these kids.

The one lad pulled his teacher up on the subject and in a round about way told him he was talking crap. He now has no faith whatsoever in this particular teacher (science) told me he no longer wants to be in his classes and thinks he's an 'idiot' so to me that is now the rest of this remaining school year where he has no faith in his teacher who is supposed to be teaching him a key subject and someone that he should look up to.

These kids look up to us older members much much more than their own teachers. Whether that's a good thing or not I'm not sure, the one lad who is only 13 is also the grandson of one of our customers, we had him with us a bit through the summer, bale bumping, digging gatepost holes, just general stuff, and he's already wanting to go to college to do what I did (land based tech) and is keen as pie to be involved.

Whereas when he talks about school it's just constantly watching what you say so as not to 'offend' anyone and being PC beyond!

Shame really.
 

delilah

Member
Yep, saw that yesterday and thought the same. Faceache though so only shared to the believers mostly.

NFU education and AHDB we eat balanced fb pages are both awful, truly awful, they either need taking down or vastly improving, if the latter then they should take the raw material from that page and use it to put on their own sites. All the hard work has been done for them all they need to do is copy n paste. Surely we give them enough dosh to facilitate this.
 

delilah

Member
Some of our younger members still in school in YFC get to telling me about the stuff they are 'taught' in school. And wow.... honest to god am I glad I'm not there now because I would probably be continually sent out for not accepting the propaganda and total trash they are 'teaching' these kids.

The one lad pulled his teacher up on the subject and in a round about way told him he was talking crap. He now has no faith whatsoever in this particular teacher (science) told me he no longer wants to be in his classes and thinks he's an 'idiot' so to me that is now the rest of this remaining school year where he has no faith in his teacher who is supposed to be teaching him a key subject and someone that he should look up to.

These kids look up to us older members much much more than their own teachers. Whether that's a good thing or not I'm not sure, the one lad who is only 13 is also the grandson of one of our customers, we had him with us a bit through the summer, bale bumping, digging gatepost holes, just general stuff, and he's already wanting to go to college to do what I did (land based tech) and is keen as pie to be involved.

Whereas when he talks about school it's just constantly watching what you say so as not to 'offend' anyone and being PC beyond!

Shame really.

At least in rural areas such as yours we can help the teachers out, through the direct contact they have with farming such as the young lad you refer to, fair play to him.
The bigger issue is the urban areas. How many of us have direct contact with the teachers inside the m25 or the other major conurbations ? I keep banging on about Twinkl because that is where the teachers go to plan their lessons. It is completely negligent of the NFU not to have worked with teachers to put teaching resources on there, it's about time some digits were extracted.
 

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
Hope you don't just focus on the carbon cycle. There's the N cycle that is running in the soil which sees a lot of N transformations. There's up to date research now saying that conventional arable, which doesn't actively increase soil carbon and relies on artificial N emits high levels of Nitrous Oxide a potent green house gas. However, the same work shows conservation/regen ag systems and organic systems as increasing soil carbon, however because there is more soil organic matter (C) the microbial breakdown of it releases large amounts of Nitrous Oxide, so cancelling out any gain in reducing atmospheric carbon.

Seems that we're just being too simplistic in solely looking at soil carbon - it isn't the big solution that we all hoped it might be.

Of course there are many benefits to having higher soil organic matter levels, which we all know about, so it's not a bad thing to do - but claiming a net reduction in global warming potential, not good, and misleading to suggest otherwise.
I teach it from our farms point of view where we graze ruminants have cover crops and practice no till i put a big emphasis on soil health and teach the basics with a few videos from my favourite soil scientists. I do indeed tell them about nitrous oxide in our system. I think it makes the kids so much more interested when they can see how the cycle effects real life.
 

delilah

Member
Coming soon to a school near you. Vegan Vince and his campaign to educate the kids on the horrors of industrial farming and eating meat.

https://ministryofeco.org/?utm_source=braze&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=B2C+Transformer+Nov+21


And we are, where, exactly ? Put anything on Twinkl yet ? Put anything on our fb page in the last month ? Have we feck.

https://www.facebook.com/NFUSchools/


I'm going to ask a teacher later for a word that is stronger than useless. Because useless doesn't, remotely, come close to describing our PR.
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
Coming soon to a school near you. Vegan Vince and his campaign to educate the kids on the horrors of industrial farming and eating meat.

https://ministryofeco.org/?utm_source=braze&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=B2C+Transformer+Nov+21


And we are, where, exactly ? Put anything on Twinkl yet ? Put anything on our fb page in the last month ? Have we feck.

https://www.facebook.com/NFUSchools/


I'm going to ask a teacher later for a word that is stronger than useless. Because useless doesn't, remotely, come close to describing our PR.
Negligent?
 

Swarfmonkey

Member
Location
Hampshire
After a quick look at this rubbish I see Vince and his chums at the "Ministry of Eco Education" are going full-bore on the vegan brainwashing, aiming it at KS2 kids (7-11 years old IIRC). Extremists love to get their hands on the young and impressionable, and that goes as much for Vegan Vince as it did for the Nazi's with their Deutsches Jungvolk or the Communist's with their Young Pioneers.
 
OK. Am sick to death of reading on here about how kids are coming home from school with stories of anti-cow lessons.

Have just banged out the below.

Yes it's simplistic, yes it's biased, yes it's most likely wrong on the science. Whatever. I am sending it to the schools in our village, feel free to do the same if you wish.

Or alternatively, if you want to distribute the proper stuff produced by the professionals who have all day every day to work on this, go on to the NFU education website and download their information pack for teachers on cows and climate change.
Good luck with that.



Cows and Climate Change
Teachers: Your questions answered

“Cows cause climate change, yes?”
No. Cows are an important component of a stable climate.
Grassland covers much of the Earth’s surface, and through the process of photosynthesis plays a crucial role in removing carbon from the air and storing it in the soil (carbon sequestration).
Grassland only exists because it is grazed, by ruminants. Throughout history this grazing has been carried out by wild animals; buffalo, deer, camels. Today this role is played in much of the World by domesticated cattle.

“What about methane?”
Cows burp methane. This methane is rapidly broken down as a natural part of the carbon cycle. The problem we have today is the methane being released into the environment as a result of our use of fossil fuels, which is entering the environment far quicker than it can be broken down. Sources of this methane cover all aspects of our exploitation of fossil fuels, from fracking to plastic bags (which release methane as they break down).

“We can manage without cows though?”
The alternatives to beef and milk are based on products such as soya and palm oil, grown on land the other side of the planet that has had its rainforest destroyed to grow them. Cows also provide us with a huge range of products used in everyday life which would otherwise have to be made from oil. It’s not ‘vegan leather’, it’s plastic.

“Why are we being told that cows are bad for the planet then?”
Two sectors are pushing the anti-cow agenda for their own interests:
- Animal rights extremists, who have jumped on the climate change issue to scare people into giving up all contact with animals (including pets).
-Global corporations, who see vast amounts of money to be made from producing ‘food’ in factories from artificial ingredients. These companies are funding anti-cow campaigns.

“Where can I find out more about this issue?”
Visit www.thefarmingforum.co.uk and read the many threads on cows and climate change.
They will be quick to tag you with the methane bit, so you need to take a bit of time on Google, about a half hour and get it straiqht. Methane is a gas similar to CO2 but not exactly the same. It will degrade over a 10 year span. CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels is a different molecular structure and does not degrade.
Another they will be quick to tag you with is soybeans. Another half hour on Google checking soybean councils and production w3ill provide you with the following. Yes all soybean meal goes to feed animals. The kicker, as you will, is that soybean meal is what is left after the soy beans are processed to remove the soy oil. The oil is used for human consumption so the animals are doing the companies a favour.
If you are having trouble finding some of this, I do have some of them saved and can send them if you wish.
 
These groups need to called out, and if your organizations like NFU aren't doing it, then you need to do it yourselves and get people into the NFU that will fight fire with fire. They show up on my FB all the time and I have no problem harassing them, calling them out on their half truths and mis-information. The vegans don't like it, but for the most part the host pages tolerate it, as long as you are reasonably civil. Sitting around and complaining doesn't do any good. It has to start somewhere, remember they did.
 

delilah

Member
They will be quick to tag you with the methane bit, so you need to take a bit of time on Google, about a half hour and get it straiqht. Methane is a gas similar to CO2 but not exactly the same. It will degrade over a 10 year span. CO2 emitted by burning fossil fuels is a different molecular structure and does not degrade.
Another they will be quick to tag you with is soybeans. Another half hour on Google checking soybean councils and production w3ill provide you with the following. Yes all soybean meal goes to feed animals. The kicker, as you will, is that soybean meal is what is left after the soy beans are processed to remove the soy oil. The oil is used for human consumption so the animals are doing the companies a favour.
If you are having trouble finding some of this, I do have some of them saved and can send them if you wish.

Thanks for the offer, but i'm not looking to make any improvements to it. I said it was amateurish and simplistic, because, well, i'm a simple amateur. What I am looking for, is for those I pay subs and levies to to start to do their job.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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