Welfare Ranching:
The Subsidized Destruction
of the American West

Despite extensive documentation about the ecological and health costs of our predilection for a red meat based diet, livestock production has drawn limited scrutiny from environmental organizations, government agencies, and the public at large. Welfare Ranching will bring the issues surrounding livestock raising into clear focus, emphasizing ranching on Western public lands, but also addressing global production and the Midwest feedlot system, which dominates American agriculture.

There are many reasons that livestock production has eluded deserved criticism. The effects of livestock production are subtle and less obvious to the untrained eye, than, say, an open pit mine or clearcut. Many of the ecological changes associated with livestock production occurred a century ago, and we have accepted the altered landscape as normal. For example, most people don't realize that the naked desert washes they see across the Southwest were once robust streams shaded by cottonwoods or willow, or that much of what is now sagebrush in many Montana valleys was a nearly continuous cover of grass a century ago. The effects of livestock raising -- biodiversity loss, soil erosion, watershed pollution -- are cumulative rather than immediate.

With conservative estimates showing that federal taxpayers subsidize over $1 billion in direct costs to the ranching industry every year, Welfare Ranching will help give this issue the attention it deserves. It will also be part of a larger educational campaign linking livestock production issues with other negative side effects, such as water pollution, species endangerment, and habitat loss.

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