Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Carry Kim speaks with Doug Lindamood, from SonRise Ranch in San Diego County, California. He and his family own and operate this pasture based livestock operation dedicated to changing industrial, factory farming into a local, sustainable, integrity, food movement through education and outreach one family at a time.
The film ‘Corazón Vaquero: The Heart of the Cowboy’, documents the rural “Californios,” raising livestock in the way of their Spanish ancestors in the Southern Baja California mountains. Facing tourism development, road building, and cultural changes, the isolated ranchos still persist with their self-sustaining subsistence-based way of life.
Washington State’s move to extirpate an entire pack of wolves near the Canadian border for the infraction of killing a few alien domestic cattle grazing public lands is reprehensible. That wildlife agencies would kill any wolves to benefit the profit margin of private businesses utilizing public resources is an outrage. George Wuerthner writes how the tragedy of this slaughter of wild predators repeats itself over and over throughout the West.
Wild bison will be allowed to migrate out of Yellowstone National Park and stay in parts of Montana year-round under a move by Gov. Steve Bullock. The decision won’t end the slaughter of some bison that roam outside of the park, yet pushes against the collusion between cattle ranching interests and wildlife managers using the threat of brucellosis to justify private property and development rights over the spirit of the wild.
The amazing bison, revered by native societies, survives despite its continued sacrifice at the demand of the cattle industry. While slaughter continues at the borders of Yellowstone National Park, bison managers consider alternative management policies. Also watch the documentary, “Silencing the Thunder.”
A recent documentary, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, advocates leading environmental organizations must address animal agriculture’s massive impacts to forests, water sustainability, and climate change. Also watch Howard Lyman’s documentary, Mad Cowboy.
Reviled by ranchers and hunters, managed through “harvesting” by state wildlife agencies, with ardent conservationists its last hope, the gray wolf has cut a controversial wake in the North American landscape ever since it was reintroduced from Canada in 1995. Watch the film on Earth Focus.