Annoyed at school.

[slackjawedyokel]

My 8yr old Child1 came home from school today and I asked him what he’d been doing at school (an otherwise excellent country primary).
“Science”
What about?
“Global warming”
Hmmmm.....
“Did you know that since xxxx the planet has warmed up xxx on a graph, and did you know that methane causes global warming, and did you know that cows produce xxx tons of methane in their lifetime?”
Hmmmm


Let’s face it, that’s the story that’s everywhere these days (everyone from David Attenborough downwards is saying we should eat less meat to save the planet) it would hardly be a surprise if it is on the syllabus.

So, before I make a of myself storming on down there, what would be the best, most credible sources of information (preferably peer reviewed stuff rather than Facebook infomatics) to counter the MEAT =BAD FOR CLIMATE agenda?

(I should add that this is on the back of some heavily biased homework sheets Child1 came home with a couple of months ago, which had clearly been written from an animal -rightsy point of view- I suspect a veggie/vegany teacher pedalling their views in an otherwise excellent school.)

 

[Classichay]

i think its too easy to take up in arms about things like this, i remember at college many moons ago you'd have such and such's parents coming in and complaining about a lecturer who didnt say things how it suited their dairy farming situation and it just looked abit mad on heindsight. Cows make methane? cutting down trees causes global warming? soya production is more harmful than good? its all facts but at the end of it its a limited part of the story. I think to be a teacher in todays narrative you need to be outspoken about something to get through the interviews.. such as a vegan animal production lecturer at a major uni.... Horses for courses.

 

[Chris F]

So - primary school and peer reviewed papers don't go had in hand. But Professor Myles Allens paper on Methane should be pushed in from of their noses.

You could also take some key sections from "the Omnivores Dilema" as well which covers grassfed beef in some detail based on Polyface Farms.

 

[teslacoils]

Yes, we had yr8 global warming care of the Guardian. A quick look at some maps f Roman , iron age, and even closer to now showed that sea level had already gone down a fair way. The realisation that a 15m sealevel rise, plus 2 degrees C, means our farm becomes seaside was a big yay for global warming.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

That’s really helpful, thankyou @Chris F . The Myles Allen stuff might be just what I’m looking for. I’m not a complainer by nature, but this is something that touches a nerve so I’d rather not let it pass and would also like to be able to show that my opinions are valid, not just ranting.

 

[Bobthebuilder]

There’s no getting away from the fact that cows produce methane, that’s how they work, the problem is saying that they are the main reason for global warming which is literally a load of , teaching that home production is by far the best way to source food and products than transporting it from all over the world would be better

 

[DaveGrohl]

I share your outrage. Trouble is, it's a primary school and what if the teacher genuinely does believe the vegan side of the argument and they think you're the loon? Once the kids are out of school and watching telly that's what they'll hear anyway, however ludicrous it is. They're not in a position to make a proper judgement, they'll believe what their teacher tells them. I'll aplaud you if you do try to educate the teacher but it might not make much difference.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

I wasn’t going to try to educate the teacher. I was going to talk to the Head.

 

[ollie989898]

You can't expect a primary school to be doing anything too complex. I remember learning about global warming and deforestation in Brazil when I was in primary school. I particularly enjoyed drawing pictures of huge machines cutting down, moving or bulldozing rainforest. I can remember that they did not explain:

That many Brazilians are (were- this is rather a long time ago now) very poor and cutting down trees was a way to make money and feed their families.
That the British landmass experienced the exact same thing hundreds of years earlier, only no bulldozers were used.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

For interest, here’s some homework the 7/8 year olds had last term:

I thought that was rather unbalanced, and forced the children to agree with one side of the argument.

 

[milkloss]

Maybe teach the youngster how the rainforest is cut down to produce soya which is often used as a meat replacement and that beef production is the only thing viable on the now sterile and exhausted ground left behind.

 

[delilah]

The attached was put together by folks on here. If you want any hard copies pm me your address.

 

[Treg]

Ah been there.....
There's some really good resources on here, in fact seen a Brilliant post in the last couple of days showing the methane cycle, think it may have been on the Ahbd bashing thread?? If I find it I'll repost it here.
Write a calm letter to the school with facts backing your side , you may be surprised at the reaction.
The head was at first shocked that they could of been teaching the little cherub s anything but the truth when I sent a letter but a week later she had a chat with me & said she'd seen several things on TV that backed cows can be good for the environment & soya wasn't as good as they thought.
I also pointed out they were replacing meats with Quorn which carrys a health warning on the packet & is banned in several countries.

 

[delilah]

The attached also put together by folks on here. Feel free to copy.
There's loads of papers and resources for teachers on this thread:
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...info-sheet-on-cows-and-climate-change.301538/

 

[delilah]

The sacred cow lady sends you a copy of the attached when you sign up on her website.
Anyone on here with kids at school should send a copy in with a request that it goes up on the wall.
https://sustainabledish.com/

 

[czechmate]

I thought the schools were closed?
Certainly my granddaughters is!

 

[Ted M]

@Dalos ,didn't you have similar at your kids school but achieved a good outcome!?

 

[Dalos]

@Dalos ,didn't you have similar at your kids school but achieved a good outcome!?

Yes I did Ted, I had an issue with meat free monday being promoted,
I went to have a meeting with the head and the catering manager who also manages an number of other private schools
i took a lot of info from Zoe Harcombe's seminars from groundswell on YouTube for the nutritional counter argument and i took official gov climate info which was easy to find with google to show just how little agriculture actually emits compared to what the propaganda suggests , i also countered the water consumption of each burger by calculation in the same way for the school and grounds which hit them pretty hard as they have lots of playing fields.
I was lucky that the meatfree monday leaflet was so full of holes that there was nowhere for them to hide . I also printed off the organisations behind MeatFreeMonday and other starter vegan food businesses to show that it was being driven by massive multinationals that are not interested in the environment or peoples health but are more interested in increasing the wealth of the shareholders and monopolising the food chain.
Get at them and make it uncomfortable when you have official data and sound science, Good luck

 

[andyt87]

I'm sure it won't be what someone who relies on having plenty of kids in a school for a career wants to hear, but this puts the affect of actual life choices on CO2e emissions into perspective.

May cause bullying of twins though.

 

[Al R]

12 months ago the primary school here in quite a rural community tried to do Veganuary, now this isn’t exactly an arable area with 99% of farms having livestock. A mass load of complaints and they stopped it, there was also the Greta protests where they wanted my 4 & 5 year olds at the time to go on the protest - I went straight to the head’s office (hadn’t been in that building or room since I was 16) and told him straight that if he was encouraging it I would pull the kids from that school permanently, as did quite a few others.

last February they were telling my 6 year old that Donald Trump was an evil man who has done horrible things Yes he’s an idiot and had caused mayhem with immigration etc but as a businessman he had actually done quite a lot of good with relations with North Korea, Russia etc, I’m no fan of his but I wouldn’t have called him evil.

Too many teachers have gone straight from school to university and back to teaching and have absolutely ZERO knowledge outside of their curriculum/subject.... PS, not meant to offend people who have spouses as teachers but this is what the bulk of them are like when I was in school and the ones teaching my children.