The new school year has already begun for children in eastern Austria, and the last week of the holidays has begun in Upper Austria. The “Wirtschaften am Land” association from Vienna has also been looking into schools: In cooperation with “Junge Landwirtschaft Österreich”, 97 textbooks from the first eight school years – primary schools and general secondary schools (AHS) – were examined for their content on agriculture.
The association is not satisfied with the result, and the results were presented together with Farmers’ Association President Georg Strasser at a press conference on Monday. Knowledge about domestic agriculture is increasingly being lost: in four out of ten books for primary schools (in the subject of general knowledge), the subject does not appear at all. In the case of books for secondary schools, this applies to almost a quarter, it was said.
Forestry and hunting are also discussed too rarely. There are clear deficiencies in the content, criticised club chairman Robert Pichler.
Factory farming or not?
The association is offended by the fact that a picture (bottom left) in a biology textbook published by Westermann is supposed to show factory farming. However, the cows depicted in the stable are actually from an animal welfare stable.
Image: OÖN
“}”>
Image: OÖN
One particular thorn in the side of Farmers’ Association President Strasser is that local farms are referred to as “industrial operations” in some books. This creates a distorted image of agriculture among children and young people. In principle, the learning content must clearly distinguish between Austrian and global agriculture, he said. For example, the caged keeping of chickens is addressed without pointing out that this is prohibited in Austria.
The following passage in a geography book published by Westermann-Verlag was also criticized: “Livestock farming, agriculture and deforestation also contribute to climate change.” There is a lack of contextualization here. The publisher did not respond to a query from OÖNachrichten yesterday.
The association and Strasser are calling for two additional agricultural experts to be sent to the textbook commission. At least one hour per week should be devoted to the topics of food production and nutrition in the first six school years.
