There is a fine line between education and advertising, and the cheerful schoolbooks about meat and dairy that Utah Farm Bureau CEO Randy Parker plans to place in Utah classrooms fall into the latter category ("Utah Farm Bureau launches counterattack on 'eco-propaganda,'" Tribune , Jan. 9). Parker can criticize my children's book on vegetarians and try to positively spin the meat and dairy industries, but his industry is being exposed, and people are going vegan.

Contrary to Parker's belief that children are "traumatized" by "go-green" messages like recycling, as an elementary school teacher I never experienced a child who was overwhelmed by learning about the destructive nature of factory farming, let alone energy conservation. Children are not only curious about serious topics like climate change, animal rights, endangered species and veganism, but when they find that they can help solve a problem, be it animal mistreatment or pollution, simply through their choices, then action is not a question but a conclusion.

Even happy books about where meat and dairy come from expose children to the fact that the chicken on their plate is actually a chicken. When my students realized that, most wanted to go vegan.

Ruby Roth

Los Angeles