Iowa State chooses cash over truth?

One of the realities within the sustainable agriculture movement is that higher education has turned against truth in favor of profit. I know that sounds harsh and extremist, but before you disregard this as "extreme radicalism" take a few moments to consider the arguments. the story below is a good example of a case where, from all appearances, the obvious conclusion is that Iowa state prefers to say what supports big money in big agriculture even when it conflicts with the truth.

I'll leave the details of the story to your reading of the original article, but here are a few interesting clips;

When the dean of the agriculture school in Iowa State was asked "have cows evolved to eat grass?" her answer was a very politically correct "I don't have an opinion on that statement". So apparently a basic understanding of agriculture is not required to be dean of agriculture? Or is that she does not wish to loose her job over speaking the truth. Oddly enough, all of the images about agriculture in Iowa State that the public sees show cows eating grass, although virtually every cow within the state of Iowa actually is fed Grain, and then antibiotics to keep it from getting ill from the grain. (yes, that is the way it is done, grain followed by necessary antibiotics, because without antibiotics, the grain could kill the cows from disease).

The story speaks for itself, and you must draw your own conclusion, but I am firmly on the side of concluding that Iowa State is choosing to ignore truth, teach a lie, and keep receiving money from the big business that need the lie to be accepted to succeed.  and yea, that is harsh, but can you honestly say its not true?

Sadly, this is NOT unique to Iowa State. check with the agriculture departments in your state universities, colleges, and even high schools. You will see that the vast majority of them teach that is it necessary to continue doing what big business is doing, involving heavy use of deadly chemicals at all stages of food production, artificial fertilizers to keep things growing on dead ground, and antibiotics fed to animals to allow for feeding of wrong or inferior food and unsanitary living conditions. In a nutshell, that is what our children are being taught about agriculture. Oh, you will probably also run into ... you must use lots and lots of petroleum to create food and in the process you wont make any money.

I am sad that so many people in authority have chosen to follow the path of  "repeating what they heard"  without thinking for themselves. How hard is it, truly, to admit that cows eat grass? How hard is it to see that the images required to sell meat show completely opposite scenes than those uses to produce it? Apparently today, in higher education, that type of truth is very hard.. that type of truth gets you thrown out.


Here's the original article, what do you think?:

http://chronicle.com/article/At-Public-Colleges/66044