Farm Bureau upset that science kit for students contains left-wing book with misinformation about modern farming
Published: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 6:00 AM Updated: Saturday, October 08, 2011, 9:27 AM
The Michigan Farm Bureau objects that a popular and well-regarded developer of Michigan science curriculums is using a self-published book that has inaccuracies about conventional agricultural methods and pushes an unabashedly liberal agenda.
The book is included in a new seventh-grade science kit marketed by theBattle Creek Area Math and Science Center and is part of the unit on climate change, which the Michigan Department of Education identifies as a required topic in seventh-grade science.
“A Hot Planet Needs Cool Kids” holds up Al Gore as an “eco-hero;” promotes organizations such as Greenpeace and Rainforest Alliance; urges children to persuade their parents to “Vote Green” and buy organic; cautions against new-home construction, the plastics industry and conventional agriculture, and notes “many people believe that it is best for the earth for families to have no more than one child.”
The 88-page book was written by Julie Hall, a resident of Bainbridge, Wash., cofounder of