This past Saturday’s Wall Street Journal contained an interesting essay entitled “Actually, Raising Beef is Good for the Planet,” which reinforces of the point that I continue to hammer over and over on this blog and others: Grazing livestock, when planned responsibly and executed properly, is the most effective way to conserve and preserve the shortgrass prairie ecosystem.
The essay, written by a formal environmental attorney, hits on a wide array of issues beyond grassland preservation including greenhouse gasses, water usage, and world hunger, and it also presents a number of statistics that stand in stark contrast to the run of the mill facts and figures commonly referenced by the anti-beef contingency.
There have been dozens, if not hundreds, of books written on each issue she discusses in this essay, and, like any complex problem, the solution will not be found a brief eleven-paragraph essay. However, I am glad to see the national media shining a spotlight on grazing and the positive effects that livestock and ranching can have on the environment.
A very interesting article and well worth the five minutes it will take to read:
Actually, Raising Beef is Good for the Planet