Small ranchers like the small family farmer are pushed out of business by laws that favor the big boys. Its a question of balance. Just because we have done something someway in the past and its become routine doesn't mean its the smartest thing to do long term. I'm also talking about cars that only run on gasoline (now that's one helluva monopoly devastating the economy and jeopardizing national security) and relying solely on the dirty energy sector for burning rocks to generate electricity. Eating meat. God knows I love a good prime rib. I'm not a hypocrite but just as hikers run the risk of bear attacks, and swimmers run the risk of shark attacks, ranchers run the risk of wolf attacks. Its the world we live in and we're fools not to be conscious of it....We could wipe out all the predators but they have a function to perform that we may not even fully understand yet. Its ridiculous to assume we know everything or ever will.
We didn't build this Earth- we didn't put it here - we have been born unto it and are guests in someone elses creation -home if you will- built by who knows who (chance, god) its an unknowable - and maybe designed that way for a reason. Its the height of arrogance to think we can willy-nilly, destroy everything in our path, our air, our water, our forests, our oceans, each other, and not destroy ourselves.
I err on the side of caution. Lets not destroy the environment that sustains us including the bees that pollinate 2/3rds of our food. We have to come to grips with man made technology and our assumptions that just because we can conceive of it that its meant to be and good for us. And we always need to reassess our assumptions and routines and look anew at our surroundings, learn and improve.
The biggest impediment to that improving is entrenched interest grappling for advantage over the public largess - whether its in the form of tax loopholes, subsidies, land, mineral rights, oil leases, and royalty payments. Just because it makes somebody money somewhere doesn't mean its the right thing to do overall. The hunting industry is a wealthy one - they don't want the elk decimated - the ranchers don't want their bottom line messed with, but the public at large deserve a fair return on our public lands and coffers and want to redirect that money into restoring the planet and our health.
Yes we want mercury out of the air, pesticides off our food, and herbicides out of our water, and the wolf back in the Rockies to cull the herds, to not mess with the original blue print so much, ending overfishing and getting genetically modified food off our grocery store shelves...it might be causing all the pancreatic cancer.
At the end of the day a healthy environment = a healthy economy = a healthy society - for everyone - not just the big boys - and if the middle class is healthy the big boys get even wealthier. How the paper elite don't understand that is mind boggling. Their greed and laser like focus on their own bottom line is missing the big picture, and the economies of scale.
From the small waterman to big pharmaceuticals we should all have a seat at the table. And leveling the playing field IS the governments job. To the extent the government has been hijacked by big agriculture, big pharma, big oil, and wall street is why the whole damn thing is currently out of whack.
Its up to us the little guys to come together and restore the balance for the environment, the economy and each other. Its our challenge, and the right thing to do. Capitalism run amok is like anything else, wolves, bears, cattle and elk - inherently self destructive. Regulations create jobs and reel in the obsessive compulsive and destructive behavior and consumption of our addictive power hungry, money grubbing addicts who can not moderate their own behavior, and bully their way to the top until someone stops them. Its in our collective best interest for that someone to be all of the rest of us. Are you with me?
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