There has been way too much talk about what it will cost meat packers and far too little about what their actions have already costs producers. We don’t need market power depressing the prices of meats to suppliers and all that money going into the next bubble whether it be the tech bubble, the housing bubble or whatever bubble money flows into at the hands of Wall Street. We need family farmers to make money and get the part of the economy they deserve from their production, not a discriminated price that meat packers use to whittle their incomes and ranks.

The Congress should be embarrassed about what they have allowed to happen on their watch. Instead, they just get the meat packer’s talking points and bribes, and just make things worse.

We need money to stop buying Congress so our economy can actually work the way it is supposed to— not manipulated by the market power of the buyers. It has ruined our economy already, cost suppliers dearly, and lost so much value in rural economies.

Tom

As with most studies there is never any cost/benefit figures to accompany it.

I have been practicing holistic management similar to what you describe in this article for a few years now. I truly appreciate your approach to this study. Rarely do research projects allow management that is considered appropriate by the rancher that knows the land the best. Congratulations for your effort in this area. I am in a very dry area of SE Colorado, much more brittle than in this study. In the first three years of management after infrastructure was in place, I have been able to increase stocking rate to 4 or 5 times the NRCS recommendations while dramatically improving the land.

I do have one comment on this study. I have not seen the original study. The last sentence in the article again emphasizes the paradigm in which most conventional rancers and academics live. It appears that it is still assumed by the author that animal grazing is detrimental and a necessary evil. The truth is that this is the exact prescription that will heal the land and is the positive factor that is needed in these brittle environments. These brittle environments developed for years in the presence of large herding animals that did exactly what the ranchers in this study did. They grazed for a short time and moved on either because of the fouling of the land with dung and urine or from pressure from predators. This is the only management tool that will maintain and heal land in these environments. We can cooperate with nature or fight it every step of the way. It works better when we work with nature instead of trying to overcome it.

It is very refreshing to see this type of article. Keep up the good work.

Gary Wofford