While it still feels like summer here on the East Coast, pumpkin spice lattes are on the menu at Starbucks and kids are back in the classroom – both telltale signs of fall. As students and teachers embark on another year of learning, now is a great opportunity for me to remind you of how active animal rights organizations have been and will continue to be in targeting youth with animal rights/vegan messaging.

The National Animal Rights Conference held in July offered a peak at this tactic, with sessions titled “Cultivating Compassion with Humane Education” and “Empowering and Educating Children.” Speakers in these sessions stated that activists needed to go into schools because they “have the answer to animal abuse and it’s to stop animal agriculture by educating people.”

Activists see an opportunity to exploit children’s love for their family pets, saying, “If you love your pet that much, you can love animals that much and go vegan.” It’s clear to see why we should be concerned about people who believe “animals are people too” and “there is no such thing as humane meat” going into schools and claiming to be providing educational materials on animal agriculture and meat.

While it may seem unbelievable that teachers would allow such messages to be presented in their classrooms, here at the Alliance we receive frequent reports from members about alarming and inaccurate content about animal agriculture being shared with students by guest speakers with organizations such as the Ethical Choices Program.

That’s why it’s essential to be proactive and make sure we are putting just as much effort into visiting classrooms as activist groups are.

We challenge college students competing in our College Aggies Online scholarship program to visit classrooms to teach lessons or read books about agriculture, and now I’m challenging all of you to do the same. Farm Bureau’s Ag in the Classroom resources are a great place to start, and I’m sure your local or state ag organizations would love to partner with a meat company in this effort.

Back to school: activist groups courting kids in the classroom

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