Secondary School Propaganda

Today in food tech, my yr7 child and his class were told by their teacher:

Cows caused climate change due to methane.

Farmers dump excess manure in rivers.

Transporting animals for slaughter is a major emitter of co2.

A field of cows produces less food than a field of wheat.

Dairying farming uses all the water and causes draught.

I'm kidding you not. This is a rural secondary school in mid Lincolnshire. Could someone link me to the thread on non-biased school resources. Obviously, the school is about to get s strongly worded letter.
I'd say that teacher should get the sack for telling students lies.

The problem is that tea jers are so think on the ground these days they might not be in a position to boot her.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Should still be on there. Most of those are journal articles with the odd more accessible source in there.

I'm wondering what subject this is coming up in, because unless the GCSE syllabus has changed, it's not necessarily on it, per se. Some ecology is covered (did transects etc) as is selective breeding.

Possibly geography?
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
Sources of GHG emissions...


Go to the homepage for articles on B12, importance of dairy in diets etc.

Ask the teacher what he/she is going to do with the 18 million tonnes of rapeseed meal which is left over after human consumption oil has been extracted? Same with the palm kernel, citrus pulp, sunflower expeller, soyabean meal (post oil removal), maize gluten, brewers grains, distillers grains, vivergo distillers grains, sugar beet pulp, bread waste, wheat feed, molasses, damaged potato, etc. Write to him/her, and ask if they have a suggestion for a more sustainable and carbon friendly use than feeding to animals to convert to high quality protein. Ask for it to be under 1,000 words. Give him/her some work to do.

Ask how they are going to suggest a system which is more carbon friendly than carbon sequestrating grassland for meat production in most of Scotland, Wales, NY Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Peak district, County Durham, most of West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, parts of Shropshire and Herefordshire, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Northamptonshire clays, river basins, floodplain grasses, half of Staffordshire, etc.

Ask him/her where the livestock production carbon emissions came from. i.e. you don't create carbon, but only change it's form, so the grass/feed must have photosynthesised it from CO2 in the first place. Ask the school to ask their chemistry and biology departments of they think carbon can have been created by livestock agriculture. Can they show their workings. Where did the carbon come from? Ask them to prove livestock farming creates carbon.

Also ask them how long methane stays in the atmosphere before it is broken down.

Also ask them which soils have the largest carbon store. Cropping and intensive veg land, or grassland? Ask them to quantify this in tonnes of carbon, and therefore how much total carbon is stored in UK arable soils vs UK grassland livestock producing soils.

Ask them why they've picked on carbon emissions from livestock farming? Ask them why they haven't mentioned alcohol production? You know all those barley fields they see, most of it goes to produce alcohol, it ferments and produces CO2, and it's a completely unnecessary dietary nutrient. Do they not think they should have mentioned this when taking about cutting carbon emissions from food/drink production?
 
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yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
Today in food tech, my yr7 child and his class were told by their teacher:

Cows caused climate change due to methane.

Farmers dump excess manure in rivers.

Transporting animals for slaughter is a major emitter of co2.

A field of cows produces less food than a field of wheat.

Dairying farming uses all the water and causes draught.
I really do dispair at what's happened to this country.

It's been such a short step from Free School Milk to them force feeding a load of mis- information like that 🤬🤬🤬
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
we live in some very strange times.
l have always said the problem's are caused by people with to little to do, and not hungry.
A hungry man has one problem, a well fed man has many, an adage say's.
Not sure l should have said man, person, or entity or he/she might be better.
But very true all the same, with food inflation about to hit them, with a bit of luck, the attitudes of these 'things/he/shes etc' might change.
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
2 plus 2 equals 4. Dietary choices and the environment, it has no definitive answer. Everyone is entitled to their view. Except we aren't getting ours out there to the teachers.
Trouble is, 2 times 2 also equals four. That’s what the vegan propaganda machine relies on. It gets awkward for them when you try the same trick with 3 or 4 or 5……
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
Today in food tech, my yr7 child and his class were told by their teacher:

Cows caused climate change due to methane.

Farmers dump excess manure in rivers.

Transporting animals for slaughter is a major emitter of co2.

A field of cows produces less food than a field of wheat.

Dairying farming uses all the water and causes draught.

I'm kidding you not. This is a rural secondary school in mid Lincolnshire. Could someone link me to the thread on non-biased school resources. Obviously, the school is about to get s strongly worded letter.
The methane thing is just sad. It’s completely wrong with ruminants but is the major part of why cows get the blame in the mind of the silly people with influence and power, and therefore the dominant narrative. There are now quite a lot of resources explaining all this. Some of us have a conversation going on with a lot of positive articles and scientific studies regarding why GWP100 isn’t fit for purpose and that GWP* has to become widely known and understood. I could send you an invite if you like? We want to put a sticky thread on the main forum with all of these resources but Christmas distracted everyone temporarily as it always does.

When you write to all these people you should definitely use the word libellous. That would concentrate a few minds. Or is it seditious? Maybe I need to go back to school? :LOL:
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
Sources of GHG emissions...


Go to the homepage for articles on B12, importance of dairy in diets etc.

Ask the teacher what he/she is going to do with the 18 million tonnes of rapeseed meal which is left over after human consumption oil has been extracted? Same with the palm kernel, citrus pulp, sunflower expeller, soyabean meal (post oil removal), maize gluten, brewers grains, distillers grains, vivergo distillers grains, sugar beet pulp, bread waste, wheat feed, molasses, damaged potato, etc. Write to him/her, and ask if they have a suggestion for a more sustainable and carbon friendly use than feeding to animals to convert to high quality protein. Ask for it to be under 1,000 words. Give him/her some work to do.

Ask how they are going to suggest a system which is more carbon friendly than carbon sequestrating grassland for meat production in most of Scotland, Wales, NY Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Peak district, County Durham, most of West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, parts of Shropshire and Herefordshire, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Northamptonshire clays, river basins, floodplain grasses, half of Staffordshire, etc.

Ask him/her where the livestock production carbon emissions came from. i.e. you don't create carbon, but only change it's form, so the grass/feed must have photosynthesised it from CO2 in the first place. Ask the school to ask their chemistry and biology departments of they think carbon can have been created by livestock agriculture. Can they show their workings. Where did the carbon come from? Ask them to prove livestock farming creates carbon.

Also ask them how long methane stays in the atmosphere before it is broken down.

Also ask them which soils have the largest carbon store. Cropping and intensive veg land, or grassland? Ask them to quantify this in tonnes of carbon, and therefore how much total carbon is stored in UK arable soils vs UK grassland livestock producing soils.

Ask them why they've picked on carbon emissions from livestock farming? Ask them why they haven't mentioned alcohol production? You know all those barley fields they see, most of it goes to produce alcohol, it ferments and produces CO2, and it's a completely unnecessary dietary nutrient. Do they not think they should have mentioned this when taking about cutting carbon emissions from food/drink production?
Good work sir. That would’ve got you an A in my day, soz A* hadn’t been invented.

I suspect this teacher hasn’t managed to get past the "70% of soya is fed to animals" dopeyness issue.

BTW, to be clear, it’s YOUR work the deserves the A. The AHDB page you linked is still using GWP100 FFS. This is the route cause of the livestock vilification.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
I chair the trustees of an educational charity which brings (mainly) urban children to the countryside to experience what life would have been like in ancient history (Bronze and Iron age).

It's very popular with the children and teachers.

The kids love it because it's so far outside their normal lives and they get to actually experience things rather than just talk about them (grinding corn, friction fire lighting, weaving, storytelling etc).

The teachers love it because our CEO, Claire, has spent years crafting detailed lesson plans which tick multiple curriculum boxes (maths, science, history etc) making their work really easy.

So, yes, pre prepared lesson plans are a big deal these days.

1641631720522.jpeg
 
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holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
BTW, on the soya issue it's actually pigs and poultry that use the biggest proportion.

Humans consume several times more than ruminants do.

In fact Tofu and Soya "milk" use twice as much as beef and dairy combined! (Try throwing THAT one in next time a vegan calls out livestock for soya deforestation) (y)

D589DFFF-29A6-4FC1-9040-B58BC4FD5B65.jpeg


1641632105693.png


Data source: https://ourworldindata.org/soy
 
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som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
I chair the trustees of an educational charity which brings (mainly) urban children to the countryside to experience what life would have been like in ancient history (Brize and Iron age).

Is very popular with the children and teachers.

The kids love it because it's so far outside their normal lives and they get to actually experience things rather than just talk about them (grinding corn, friction fire lighting, weaving, storytelling etc).

The teachers love it because our CEO, Claire, has spent years crafting detailed lesson plans which tick multiple curriculum boxes (maths, science, history etc) making their work really easy.

So, yes, pre prepared lesson plans are a big deal these days.

View attachment 1008622
that looks great, one question, where's the mud ?!
we have had school visits, really worth while, schools don't seem to want to come now, transports/hassle etc. The one that scared me, was the one bro in law, brought from bristol, strict lecture to stay together, not go off on their own, don't go into pens etc, 100% ignored, buggers were absolutely everywhere, they all thought it fantastic though.

Archaeology here is amazing, we had the archaeologists here for 18 months, cant see alot above ground, but underneath, fantastic, reckoned its been a 'unit' for 3500 years, even have a bronze age fortified settlement. I would add, they could have told me anything, because l wouldn't know any different.

Went to primary school with the chief archaeologist, a local farmers son, and the only slightly obese vegan, l have ever seen, and he did nothing to push/promote his veganism whatsoever.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

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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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