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Everyone loves Old MacDonald; how could you not? He is great for a friendly, fun story or song, but he isn鈥檛 doing any favors for the agriculture community. Too often, like old MacDonald, children鈥檚 books are full of antiquated farming practices and stereotypes of rural life.

Here are some of the problems we often see in children鈥檚 books:

1. Antiquated Farming Practices

Milking a cow on a stool, plowing with a horse, or having an overall 鈥淎merican Gothic鈥� type look. These are 鈥渃harming鈥� images that children鈥檚 books often use in books about agriculture. But these antiquated practices are giving students the wrong impression of how their food is grown.

2. Anthropomorphic Animals

Animals that talk and act like humans. Fables sometimes use these to teach a lesson and, in those circumstances, it is okay 鈥� think George Orwell鈥檚 鈥淎nimal Farm鈥�. This is acceptable because it is obviously pretend; however, when stories have farm animals that talk and act like humans it can give readers the wrong impression.

3. Safety Issues

What do you mean by 鈥渟afety鈥� issues? Farm safety is a real concern, whether you live on the farm or are just visiting. How to act appropriately around animals and machinery can help prevent accidents. Some picture books do not take farm safety into consideration and have images of children driving tractors or doing jobs too advanced for them. If you see this in a book you are reading, be sure to point it out to the student. Let them know that it isn鈥檛 a safe practice, and on real farms that wouldn鈥檛 be okay.

Stereotypes and misconceptions of agriculture in children鈥檚 pictures books are often the first exposure to agriculture children get. That鈥檚 why it is so important that there are accurate books about agriculture for students to read.

Here are some of our favorites.

• (being published Feb 2019)
• 鈥� Case IH series (great for showing modern ag!)

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