Fun on the farm
Farm trips and markets to teach kids about food
Thousands of Scottish schoolchildren will get to enjoy a food
and farming day to help them to learn about the food on their
plate.
Some will even have the chance to run their own farmers
market!
An organisation called The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET)
is planning days out for pupils on farms, country estates,
showgrounds and livestock markets across the country.
Young people will learn all about farming life, how food is
produced and how it gets from the farm to their plate.
And there will be 36 farmers markets in schools where the kids
will be in charge. Pupils will choose the food to be sold, set up
the stalls, and make sure people to turn up and shop.
The idea is to make sure that every child in Scotland
understands where their food comes from and how it affects their
health and the environment.
Around 6,000 young people will be involved in total.
The new scheme is only part of the RHET's work. The organisation
already takes over 12,000 children on farm visits every year and
organises classroom talks by farmers for over 26,000 young
people!
Click
here to try our daily quiz
Lesson ideas and suggestions
Join the Daily What News Facebook group
*NEW* Watch us live on Glow
TV
Fun on the farm
'Dairy cows udderly happy with life indoors' - how
teachers need to learn the truth about farming
A new scheme to help Scottish children to learn more about the
food on their plate - how it is produced and how it has travelled -
has been launched. The Royal Highland Education Trust has been
given funding to run farming-related events for an extra 6,000
pupils a year.
But teachers also need to be educated in the truth about
farming, according to one expert.
The Herald newspaper's farming correspondent, Rog
Wood, has described his dismay at a comment made by a
teacher on a recent farm trip:
A class recently visited the Scottish Agricultural College's two
dairy herds near Dumfries. One herd is allowed to graze in fields
while the other herd is kept indoors all year round. The teacher
with the class commented that this was cruel.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Non-farming folk tend to look at an animal's environment from
their own point of view and the teacher probably thought of those
cows, that were never allowed out to grass, as prisoners.
It is important to understand that farmers have bred farm
animals to be comfortable in the conditions under which they are
kept. If the cows kept indoors were distressed, they would not
produce much milk, or they would become ill. Animals that react
badly to their conditions in this way are not chosen to create the
next generation of livestock, and so the tendency to become
distressed is not passed on.
Modern, high-performing dairy cows are fragile creatures that
don't necessarily enjoy being outside in all weathers.
Modern dairy buildings can best be described as cow palaces.
They are light, airy and allow cows the freedom to wander as they
please between the area where they lie in cubicles and the area
where they lounge about and feed.
Their cubicles have very comfortable, foam-rubber mats on which
to lie, everywhere is kept spotlessly clean by automatic scrapers
that remove their muck, and there are even strategically-sited
brushes to rub against when they have an itch.
Those that graze outside during the summer months have to
contend with extremes of weather like cold winds and rain, or
scorching sun, and also have the chore of walking to and from the
fields twice a day to be milked. Not much fun for a cow with an
udder full of milk, especially in wet weather when their feet can
become injured by trampling on sharp stones concealed in the
mud.
No, I can assure readers that if dairy cows had any say in the
matter, they would vote for staying indoors all year round.
It's much the same with pigs and poultry. Hens are another
example. Most modern breeds shun the great outdoors.
We shouldn't look at the lives of animals from a human
perspective.
Click
here to try our daily quiz
Lesson ideas and suggestions
Join the Daily What News Facebook group
*NEW* Watch us live on Glow
TV