Science teachers in many states are currently updating their lessons to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The NGSS is a set of instructional guidelines that encourages educators to focus more on how science is used in the real world. AFBFA’s funding documents indicate that the foundation intends to use the adoption of the NGSS as an opportunity to provide teachers with learning materials related to the beef industry.
“Additionally, the NGSS requires teachers to address difficult topics such as climate change and sustainability,” it reads. AFBFA Funding Approval Request for its educational program. Additionally, “Teachers and students receive information from educationally reliable sources that do not represent agriculture accurately or in a balanced manner. Beef production is often the target of misinformation. A concerted effort is needed to engage teachers in conversations about these topics to achieve balance and ensure accuracy of information.”
Dutkiewicz said food production should be taught in U.S. schools, but industry-funded materials are unlikely to provide objective information about the impacts of beef production. “I am concerned that the Checkoff program is providing clearly partial resources that are strategically designed to deliver on corporate messaging,” he says.
AFBFA’s campaign also includes in-person events where educators visit farms and other parts of the beef supply chain. In 2023, her 29 teachers and school administrators from across the country traveled to Denver for his three-day event hosted by the Colorado Beef Council. Since 2019, similar events have been held in Minneapolis, Nashville, Oklahoma City, and Syracuse, New York. The Denver event also included three webinars.
Meloy said the program is primarily aimed at high school and middle school teachers. AFBFA’s “On the Farm” experiential events each involve up to 30 educators, and the most recent event had over 70,000 students.
The latest funding proposal from AFBFA outlines goals for the program in 2024. The organization hopes to reach 2.5 million educators with classroom resources and in-person events, as well as 125,000 “key opinion leaders.”
The beef industry is particularly interested in reaching younger people who may be less likely to eat beef. “They’re really worried about the younger generation,” says Nusa Urbančić, CEO of the environmental NGO Changing Markets Foundation. Teachers are an effective means of influencing young people because of their credibility, Urbancik said.
Jacquet says putting beef industry-funded learning resources in front of young people is also an opportunity for the industry to promote eating beef as socially and environmentally acceptable behavior. AFBFA classroom resources tend to feature images of cows released into fields. Most cattle raised in the United States spend their first year or more on pasture, but most are confined to intensive animal husbandry for the last six months of their lives. According to an analysis by the nonprofit Sentience Institute, 70 percent of American cattle are factory-raised this way.
Meloy asserts that AFBFA’s programs are designed to use the latest science applied in authentic and relevant contexts. “Resources in this program do not promote or encourage students to make pre-determinations. Scientific accuracy is our focus, as required by the K-12 Science Education Framework and in accordance with the NGSS. It’s built in,” he says.
Looking ahead to 2024, AFBFA hopes to provide teachers with even more online resources to learn about the beef industry. This year’s funding request also suggests AFBFA will work more closely with state beef councils to implement educational programs.
Jacquet is concerned about expanding the initiative. She points out that the meat and dairy industry is a well-organized machine, and its lobbyists were also present at COP28 in 2016. record number. “It’s a little scary that no one is in front of this issue. I don’t think it’s the opposite of what they’re doing in school,” she says.
