How to instill in the children (urbanites) the love for farm animals

“Children know more mobile brands than tree names & rdquor ;. With this harsh phrase, the Galician teacher Miriam Campos Leirós, head of Teachers for Future Spain, recently told us on these same pages how schools and families must urgently promote green education.

It is insufficient to have a mini-garden in a school or to go on a trip to the mountains once a year. The green consciousness – ours and our children’s – should permeate our entire lives, from the clothes we wear to the transportation we use to the food we eat.

Today, in the Parenting and Education Clubwe keep talking about environmentalism. But this time we focus on animals. Not in the domestic ones – to which we are accustomed and of which we know a lot thanks to my partner Vega S. Sanchez, responsible for the Club of Animals and Plants of EL PERIÓDICO- but in those of the farm. Cows, bulls, sheep, chickens and pigs.

“Many humans have long since stopped listening to nature and have distanced themselves from the animal kingdom & rdquor ;, he assures Ismael Lopez Dobarganeswhich, after the publishing success of ‘Animales como tú’, now publishes ‘The rescue of Samuel (Duomo)’, a beautiful illustrated children’s story with which our children will discover that “animals are pure love & rdquor ;. It is time that our offspring know more names of animals and trees than cell phones.

The rescue of Samuel transfers to the story the day to day of the Gaia sanctuary (Camprodon, Ripollès), a rescue and recovery center for farm animals that have been victims of livestock exploitation or have suffered abuse or neglect. In the heart of the Pyrenees, the animals live free and form “a family” in which they all have personal names: Tina, Pedro, Victoria…

Samuel, the calf that stars in the book, was rescued from a dairy farm who sent him to the slaughterhouse for being male. Once in the Gaia sanctuary, something like a hospital for animals, he found “a home and a family & rdquor ;, including two chicks rescued from a laboratory.

“We are very used to Dogs and cats, but farm animals are the great unknown. It is important for boys and girls to know them. The children have sensitivity, empathy and respect. Let’s take advantage of these great virtues – that many adults hardly have anymore – to promote their environmental awareness & rdquor ;, asks López Dobarganes. “Boys, girls and young people are the ones who will change the world & rdquor ;, she continues.

Curious – or rather, worrying – that the Congress of Deputies has not approved this week an amendment to the audiovisual law proposed by Podemos, ERC and other parties so that bullfights are considered harmful content for children and, therefore, are not broadcast on television during children’s hours.

Beyond the story, fathers and mothers can also talk to our children -depending on their age- about how Pork, beef and poultry macro-farms have skyrocketed in the last six years. The situation is especially alarming in Catalonia, where industrial livestock farming is the one that contributes the most to the climate crisis, monopolizing 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by macro-farms throughout Spain, according to a recent report by Greenpeace.

Is the solution to be vegan? You don’t have to. But if you want to be, go ahead. Science has shown that a diet based on legumes, fruits, greens and vegetables is compatible with health. Also in childhood, where school performance is not affected. This is what the dietitian-nutritionist Julio Basulto recently told us about, who recalls the importance of vegetarians (those who exclude products of animal origin, meat, fish, shellfish from their diet…) and vegans (also exclude dairy products, derivatives and eggs ) have to take vitamin B12 supplement.

But you don’t have to be vegan to love nature, reminds the author of ‘The Rescue of Samuel’. What would be good to give a boost to the fight against the climatic emergency and reduce the meat we eat.

In recent years, the Spanish have restricted the consumption of meat, which went from 39 kilos per person per year (2010 data) to 33 kilos (2019). Speaking exclusively of red meat, the World Cancer Research Fund recommends consuming no more than three servings a week (about 300 grams). However, in the opinion of Basulto and the human nutrition expert Juanjo Caceres -authors of ‘Diet and Cancer’- a maximum consumption of two weekly servings of red meat is “a sensible figure”, although they add that “no harm is observed” for not consuming it. Come on, let the meat It is not essential to live.

Related news

The political and social discussion organized after the Minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzon, starred in a video entitled ‘Less meat, more life’, in which he denounced that excessive consumption of meat harms our health and that of the environment and encouraged to reduce it was lived with “a certain joy & rdquor; by the author of The Ransom of Samuel. “Years ago, such a debate would have been unthinkable. That means that we are taking steps forward & rdquor ;, he concludes after recalling the sanctuary’s website dedicates a chapter to vegan recipes: fake chicken made with textured soy and fake sobrassada made with nuts and peppers and paprika.

Beware of eco-anxiety

Be careful, yes, with instilling in our children so much concern for the planet that they suffer ecoanxiety, a disorder that is relatively little studied and for which there is still no agreed definition. In general, it can be said that it is a feeling of discomfort, nervousness, tension, fear, frustration and anxiety in the face of environmental problems and the negative consequences that there may be on the planet, as defined by Silvia ColladoPhD in Environmental Psychology and co-author of the book ‘Ecological awareness and well-being in childhood’. The solution proposed by the psychologist is to offer environmental information to children but avoiding catastrophic messages. The author of ‘The Rescue of Samuel’ proposes more ideas to combat children’s eco-anxiety: “We must remind boys and girls that the world is already doing things, that we are changing it”.