Sust. ag in education
cjb32@cornell.edu
Tue, 3 Nov 1998 12:53:45 -0500 (EST)
Hi all-
A little while ago a fellow from the anti-dairy coalition came to
speak at Cornell, whose ag school as you might imagine is very
pro dairy. He talked a lot about anti-biotics in milk and rBST in milk,
and how this made milk unhealthy and unnatural, and had many other
comments. His talk angered a lot of people, myself included, but for
different reasons....
My first query is, is there anyone out there who knows this coalition?
My second comment is a real comment. To my knowledge, no one said
anything to the effect of, there are no anti-biotics or rBST in organic
milk. Under NOFA NY, the first requires withholding and the second is just
not allowed. (Right?)
So... so why didn't anyone bring this up in the talk? I'm not sure.
But I tell you, it makes me feel as though sustainable ag is still really
on the sidelines- well, at least here- something that hasn't been
contradicted by the vibes I get here. Which makes me wonder, who's
teaching agriculture at Cornell....?
The academic vs. grower debate, the question, do we need sustainable ag
reasearch? discussion (as you can imagine, I think we do.) are really
interesting, and I want to add this topic (what they teach in schools) to
the discussion. My mom teaches in a private (!) elementary school; she
takes her science students out to the local farms (mostly dairy and beef
farms b/c hey, kids like animals) and they talk about farming systems
(this is in lower school!) Isn't that great?! Well, I think so anyway.
What I'm getting at is this: education has to be a really central part of
the sustainable ag. debate... I know there's this struggle to just hold
the line and try and get some decent standards passed... but progress (on
a macro scale) might depend a whole lot on education, no true?
-Caitlin Brady
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