Well, I’ve been remiss in not keeping up with my blog, but it seems the year has been soooo busy, I’ve procrastinated over and over. NOT that I haven’t had my mind on beef and cattle and ranching! Hardly! This has been a tough year to BE a rancher – politically, that is – at least in our neck of the woods. But perhaps that makes the love of our lifestyle all the more poignant.
It’s made me ponder this “new” notion of sustainability. And I’m going to make it my new “mantra.” For, in fact, ranching IS perhaps the MOST sustainable form of agriculture there is! Whereas crops can fail, and often do, and can only be harvested once a year (except in terms of gardens, etc…), cattle or livestock is a continual crop and one that can travel with the farmer or rancher and can live beautifully and in harmony with wildlife and waterfowl, in pastures or in the mountains, or in lands that are much too marginal or inadequate for farming.
So what IS the beef? Cattle are amazing animals. They are sustainable and can sustain populations far more easily and efficiently than just grains or crops. If people are truly interested in feeding the world, then the world NEEDS cattle and other livestock. Crops are not enough. Cattle can graze and convert otherwise unusable dry material into an important protein.
Truly, ranching and raising livestock is the most profoundly sustainable form of agriculture there is….and rather than condemning ranchers, consumers and citizens should be supporting them.
