It’s happening again.
Red meat is under attack and society has gone mad.
Gone are the days when consumers were left to make their own free choice about what to put in their mouths.
Today the anti-red meat brigade is infiltrating the system at every level – even targeting our children at school.
The new national curriculum, released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, extols the virtues of vegetarian and vegan diets, and completely overlooks the nutritional benefits of meat.
In a disgusting display of disregard for the beef industry, it then pushes students to serve and eat food that has been prepared sustainably – the implication being, of course, that red meat is not.
Blinkered in their quest to demonise farmers, the anti-agriculture activists behind this curriculum make no mention of the fact that red meat is an essential component of a sustainable and healthy diet – and has been for hundreds of thousands of years.
Nor do they point out the fact that environmentally the Australian red meat and livestock industry has done more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector in the nation – setting targets to be carbon neutral by 2030.
So rather than brainwashing our children to embark on fad diets that leave them deficient in essential vitamins and minerals they need to grow, how about we educate them on the industry responsible for their food and fibre, thus empowering them to make their own informed choices on what to eat.
Let’s tell the kids how our farmers help care for the environment by reducing the fuel load for bushfires, managing weeds and feral animals, and improving biodiversity.
Let’s tell them that through carbon soil sequestration the Australian red meat and livestock industry will be an even greater and integral part of the solution – certainly not part of the problem.
It’s high time schools started recognising this. If they don’t, then what hope does our future industry have?
