Climate Change and the Bundy Standoff

HMI's Board member, Kevin Boyer, wrote a article titled "Why Cattle Grazing Does Not Have to Be a Climate Disaster" that was a response to a post by Ben Adler on the GRIST website titled "Cattle Grazing is a Climate Disaster and You Are Paying for It." Kevin does a great job of explaining why grasslands are superior carbon sinks to forests and how effective grazing makes for improved land health and carbon sequestration. Likewise, federal lands could be a great resource for community economic development as well as improving the climate if we have good grazing management on them. From my perspective, Adler uses the Bundy standoff as a red-herring about raising livestock or grazing leases that once again clouds many issues about the livestock industry and misses the critical point of soil health being key to addressing climate change challenges. As Kevin so eloquently states: "Ultimately, ranchers and agriculturalists are the stewards of the majority of our land, and to alienate them is to create an enemy out of a potential ally, while setting back the progress of those who have built bridges and are making a positive environmental impact on managed lands."