Teach children in schools how Meat and Milk is produced
The Issue
A petitition to introduce lessons within secondary education on the consequences of meat eating.
Secondary school children should be given lessons on the meat industry as part of their curriculum, in order to make informed choices about what they choose to eat. The lessons should be aimed to educate the future generation, not only on the climate crisis, but the morality of killing 80 billion animals a year. With the impact on the climate from animal farming now widely known and the ethics of what we are doing to animals starting to be discussed globally, I believe it is time to allow children the chance to make informed decisions about their diet and the impact both morally and environmentally.
This is not a petition to close down the meat industry, or force children to be vegan; it is a petition to encourage education to allow children to make informed choices about their diet. The meat industry for too long has hoodwinked and conditioned buyers to see meat as a product, not a life, this has led to disastrous consequences for the environment and for billions of animlas.
Most children, myself included, are given meat from a young age, yet have no idea about the damage meat production does to the environment or, how the meat is produced; primarily because it would be too distressing to tell them. Many parents do not consider reversing the pattern and feeding only a vegan diet until the child is old enough to choose, because they believe in myths such as "the child will have stunted growth" or "boys need meat" obviously ridiculous lies generated by the meat industry. We have many high profile names now speaking out, including athletes such as Novak Djokovic, who leads an entirely plant based life. I believe it is time to allow secondary school children the right to understand what they are eating and to be fully informed about the consequences of their decisions.
As we face the urgency to slow down the climate crisis adults who eat meat need to consider their consumer choices; but children cannot do this without being educated on the facts. Facts that are causing irreversible damge to the environmental world. Also, the cruelty of cage life with no nurture, no sunlight and traumatising slaughterhouses, is hidden from the buyer and needs to be addressed within a moral framework.
The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world.
Over a quarter of the world’s entire land area is used to graze or grow food for farm animals. If everyone ate a plant-based diet, we’d need 75% less farmland than we use today. That’s an area equivalent to the US, China, Europe and Australia combined.
McDonald's alone kill 67 thousand cows a day; most farming animals face a life in tiny cages in which they cannot even turn round. The end of their lives - having their throats slit - is too gruesome to tell any child and most adults never morally consider it. When you pick a packet of bacon or rack of lamb off the shelf in the supermarket you have no way of knowing how much that animal has suffered and if it's life and death is ethically appropriate for you to have one meal.
Dairy cows are continually impregnated, each year, they are forced to go through the physical demands of pregnancy and calving to once again face the stress of having their newborn calf taken away, it is unquestionably cruel. Male calves are often killed immediately as they serve no purpose to human needs.
I was brought up on meat as a child and never taught anything about the meat industry, I now feel this was wrong. I should have been able to make an educated decision, I lived in a house full of dogs and cats that we adored, so I thought I was an animal lover, the way I viewed farm animals was the same way I view inanimate objects. It never crossed my mind that these animals had rights, the same as my dog; not to be caged, impregnated and slaughtered. If we had done that to our dog we would have been imprisoned. We need to change perceptions, because the farming industry has done such a good job to condition us to see farm animals differently to pets, the result is we now kill 80 billion animals a year without a second thought for them; it is a moral, ethical and environmental disgrace.
In order to rethink and make radical changes I believe we need an overhaul in the realities of meat eating. I therefore ask you to sign the petition to get the government to become pro-active in the education of future generations, to not only save our planet, but the lives of billions of animals.
1,355
The Issue
A petitition to introduce lessons within secondary education on the consequences of meat eating.
Secondary school children should be given lessons on the meat industry as part of their curriculum, in order to make informed choices about what they choose to eat. The lessons should be aimed to educate the future generation, not only on the climate crisis, but the morality of killing 80 billion animals a year. With the impact on the climate from animal farming now widely known and the ethics of what we are doing to animals starting to be discussed globally, I believe it is time to allow children the chance to make informed decisions about their diet and the impact both morally and environmentally.
This is not a petition to close down the meat industry, or force children to be vegan; it is a petition to encourage education to allow children to make informed choices about their diet. The meat industry for too long has hoodwinked and conditioned buyers to see meat as a product, not a life, this has led to disastrous consequences for the environment and for billions of animlas.
Most children, myself included, are given meat from a young age, yet have no idea about the damage meat production does to the environment or, how the meat is produced; primarily because it would be too distressing to tell them. Many parents do not consider reversing the pattern and feeding only a vegan diet until the child is old enough to choose, because they believe in myths such as "the child will have stunted growth" or "boys need meat" obviously ridiculous lies generated by the meat industry. We have many high profile names now speaking out, including athletes such as Novak Djokovic, who leads an entirely plant based life. I believe it is time to allow secondary school children the right to understand what they are eating and to be fully informed about the consequences of their decisions.
As we face the urgency to slow down the climate crisis adults who eat meat need to consider their consumer choices; but children cannot do this without being educated on the facts. Facts that are causing irreversible damge to the environmental world. Also, the cruelty of cage life with no nurture, no sunlight and traumatising slaughterhouses, is hidden from the buyer and needs to be addressed within a moral framework.
The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world.
Over a quarter of the world’s entire land area is used to graze or grow food for farm animals. If everyone ate a plant-based diet, we’d need 75% less farmland than we use today. That’s an area equivalent to the US, China, Europe and Australia combined.
McDonald's alone kill 67 thousand cows a day; most farming animals face a life in tiny cages in which they cannot even turn round. The end of their lives - having their throats slit - is too gruesome to tell any child and most adults never morally consider it. When you pick a packet of bacon or rack of lamb off the shelf in the supermarket you have no way of knowing how much that animal has suffered and if it's life and death is ethically appropriate for you to have one meal.
Dairy cows are continually impregnated, each year, they are forced to go through the physical demands of pregnancy and calving to once again face the stress of having their newborn calf taken away, it is unquestionably cruel. Male calves are often killed immediately as they serve no purpose to human needs.
I was brought up on meat as a child and never taught anything about the meat industry, I now feel this was wrong. I should have been able to make an educated decision, I lived in a house full of dogs and cats that we adored, so I thought I was an animal lover, the way I viewed farm animals was the same way I view inanimate objects. It never crossed my mind that these animals had rights, the same as my dog; not to be caged, impregnated and slaughtered. If we had done that to our dog we would have been imprisoned. We need to change perceptions, because the farming industry has done such a good job to condition us to see farm animals differently to pets, the result is we now kill 80 billion animals a year without a second thought for them; it is a moral, ethical and environmental disgrace.
In order to rethink and make radical changes I believe we need an overhaul in the realities of meat eating. I therefore ask you to sign the petition to get the government to become pro-active in the education of future generations, to not only save our planet, but the lives of billions of animals.
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Petition created on 24 July 2023