Riding Herd
“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.”
by LEE PITTS
– James Russell Lowell
Show Business
MARCH 15, 2013 • www.aaalivestock.com
Volume 55 • No. 3
Going, Going, Gone? R by Lee Pitts
NEWSPAPER PRIORITY HANDLING
ecently I received one of those mass e-mailed missives that fill up our electronic mailboxes on a regular basis. For some reason, I read this one. It was probably because the subject matter was about something I’m really interested in: my future. The article was all about things that will disappear in our lifetime. I wasn’t surprised to learn that books, compact disks, land-line telephones, personal checks and privacy will go the way of the dinosaur because those things are already well on their way to extinction. I was surprised, however, to read that television will be gone during our lifetimes. On second thought, based on what’s available to watch on TV now days, I say, “Good riddance.” It also came as no great surprise to learn that people 40 years from now won’t be as concerned with personal possessions. In a more crowded world, people will own far less. The younger generation doesn’t seem to be interested at all in their mother’s Roseville pottery and their “book shelves” will exist only in “the cloud.” All of this speculation about the future got me to thinking about the cattle business. What cowboy-kinda-things, I wonder, will disappear during our lifetime? Or, even more fundamen-
“Don’t worry about biting off more than you can chew. Your mouth is probably a lot bigger than you think.”
tally important, will ranchers exist 40 years from now, or will they too be put out to pasture because beef will no longer be on America’s menu? There are some overly-educated people who say that will, indeed, be the case. We have already halved our consumption of beef from its high and Malin Falkenmark and his colleagues at the Stockholm International Water Institute say the other half will disappear as well. They say
there will barely be enough water for everyone on earth if humans derive just 5 percent of their calories from animal-based foods by mid-century, instead of the 20 percent of calories that they currently get from meat, eggs and dairy. These scientists contend that it takes too much water to grow a steak but this is the same old greenie horror story: “The human population would have to switch to an almost entirely veg-
etarian diet by 2050 to avoid catastrophic global food and water shortages,” they say. “There will not be enough water available to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends.” The Stockholm eggheads repeat the same old myth that cattle consume a shocking 17 times more grain calories than they produce as meat calories. All that lost grain (which humans could have eaten) requires water. “Producing food requires more water than any other human activity — and meat production is very water-intensive,” said Josh Weinberg, the communications officer of the Water Institute. The Doctor’s prediction sounds like another doom and gloom prophesy that was being circulated as I began my career in animal agriculture 40 years ago. Old timers might remember the name Paul Ehrlich; he
continued on page two
Environmentalists Are Forced To Walk A Fine Line
By Troy Marshall in My View From The Country, beefmagazine.com/
T
he environmental movement has always enjoyed the “good guy” label. As the myth goes, these are the people concerned about the long term, more concerned about others than themselves, and free of the evils generally associated with capitalism and greed. They are the crusaders who are willing to stand up and fight against business interests and the all-powerful. Of course, the environmental movement also has morphed into a multi-billion dollar industry. Some of its leaders, Al Gore, for instance, have made hundreds of millions of dollars talking the talk without walking the walk. Unsurprisingly, even business tycoons and fat-cat politicians have tapped into the various benefits that the environmental movement can offer. Heroic underdogs sometimes become huge industries themselves. Environmentalism has become one of the most powerful lobbying interest groups in the country, chalking up major victory after victory the past two decades. The labor movement had a similar evolution, but its evolution took much longer than the environmental movement’s. Labor’s power became so great that they could steamroll opponents,
but went too far in the process. Salaries, benefits and pensions are hamstringing many states and municipalities today, and public polls and union membership rolls indicate that big labor’s support is on the wane. The environmental movement is headed in the same direction, as a sluggish economy and growing restrictions and costs frustrate the population’s patience. Expensive light bulbs that don’t provide much light, billions of tax dollars squandered or wasted in alternative technologies, $4 gas at the pump, etc., are trying the patience of Americans. Just as organized labor’s footprint has shrunk, and support among the population has fallen, a backlash is beginning against the encroaching hand of environmentalism. Just as the general consumer still supports laborers, the support isn’t as strong for the labor movement. To a lesser degree, we’re starting to see a similar sentiment expressed toward the environmental movement. Obviously, people want clean water, air and soil, but they want freedom from the nanny state as well. Yes, the environmental movement’s credibility is weakening. Hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas extraction, also known as fracking, is a prime continued on page twelve
H
ave you ever noticed that the overflow crowds for every night’s performance of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo always seem to especially enjoy the team roping event, but if you go to a jackpot or regional roping there are usually more people in the arena than in the stands? And we’re talking about a sport in which the contestants are every bit as good as the football players who play on Sundays. Team roping is lots more fun to watch than baseball or poker, and which looks more thrilling to you, swooping in and catching a steer’s hind feet with a rope while mounted on a fast horse, or sweeping the ice with a broom? Yet millions watch poker on TV and curling during the Olympics, while maybe 20 people are sitting in the stands during your typical roping. One of the more popular sports in America is NASCAR in which cars go round and round real fast until they are stopped because of a wreck. Heck, you can see that on any freeway in this country. Yet the NASCAR drivers are big celebrities with their own tour buses and Lear jets while team ropers are in pawn shops gathering up gas money. The difference is marketing. We should have learned by now from cage fighting and pro wrestling that when it comes to sports in America, it’s all about the show. Ropers deserve an audience as much as bass fishermen and soccer players but there’s so much competition for people’s time that you really have to liven things up if you expect to be able to gouge them for tickets and a cable bill. I have some ideas. Vaqueros and cowboys in the old days roped other animals besides cattle and I think it might spice up team ropings, and introduce an element of surprise, if occasionally a bobcat, wolf or grizzly bear came charging out of the chute instead of a calf. We’ve all seen the boost PBR gave bull riding and, taking a page from their book, team ropers should have to put up with distractions like continued on page four
www.LeePittsbooks.com