Animal Rights
Animals are not humans
In a society where we embrace rodents as cartoon characters, give pigs a political voice, and fill advertisements with grinning cows, we seem to forget that animals do not have the same intelligence or abilities as humans. Animals’ lives deserve to be respected and valued—but they are not humans. As such, animals have different housing…
Read MoreDoes marketing sway you to buy hormone-free food?
Do you enjoy the thought of hormones? As a woman, I don’t care for hormones dancing through my body. As a mom, I worry about my little girl developing early because of hormones. As a breeder of those pretty black and white dairy cows you see on food labels, I have great respect for hormones.…
Read MoreCrock-Pots and cattle…what’s in your kitchen?
Just as “This Is Us” has created hysteria around slow cookers, “documentaries” have created hysteria around meat and milk. Are we really so unaware the difference between fiction and good television that we can’t recognize reality?
Read MoreHow do we address teacher bias? Does marketing now trump critical thinking in the classroom?
Seeds planted by teachers last a lifetime, whether good or bad. Marketing and bias should not trump science and well-rounded debate in the classroom. Teacher bias deserves the same concern as journalistic bias – a student will never be able to turn off their education the way so many of us have silenced the news. A look at the aftermath of a Chipotle video showed by a 7th grade social studies teacher.
Read MoreCalluses, crowns, and cow divas: lessons from the county fair
If you’ve never experienced a fair from the inside, it’s like final exams and Christmas all wrapped into an intense one or two weeks filled with more sweat and dirt than you can imagine. It’s both exhausting and exhilarating. I have been involved in fairs my entire life, but am always amazed watching 4-H and FFA members learn life lessons through the trials of diligently preparing a project, talking with a judge and then nervously anticipating the outcome. Sometimes, the ribbon is blue. Other times it’s red. And if they’re lucky, the coveted purple or pink ribbons may be put on a project.
The reality is that ribbons fade and are eventually stashed away in boxes, forgotten about. It’s the stories behind the ribbons that are remembered for a lifetime. A look at the care and respect young people give their animals behind the scenes at the fairgrounds.
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