Page 10
Power of
the belt
buckle
Street Roots • July 21-27, 2017
Special Report
C ootm oed fro m page 9
ows and factory farms were the topic of
several panels at the Public Interest
Environmental Law Conference in March.
The conference, held at the University of
Oregon’s School of
Law in Eugene each
year, attracts
environmental
lawyers and activists
from around the
country.
Suing land
managers has been
one of the only tools
environmentalists
have at their disposal
when it comes to
reining in livestock
grazing. But even when attorneys think they
have a good case, it can be tough to get a
win.
“Grazing is so ingrained - the Marlboro
man, the Western mantra,” Rule said. “It’s a
way of life, and we’re trying to take away
this historic way of life from these ranchers
who have been grazing these lands for 100
or 200 years. So grazing litigation is really
hard.”
Many attorneys and environmental
watchdogs say they are mystified by how
susceptible lawmakers are to the nostalgia
that surrounds the idea of the iconic
Western cowboy.
For one, getting legislation passed in
Salem to regulate the agricultural sector is
never an easy battle - and the legislative
session ending this month was no
exception. Environmental groups watched
bill after hard-fought bill die in committee
amid strong opposition from the farm lobby.
“When you go to the Capitol and see lots
of cowboy hats and belt buckles, you can bet
it’s going to be a bad day for wildlife, water
and public lands,” said Rob Klavin, Oregon
Wild’s Northeast Oregon Field Coordinator.
Klavin has spent years fighting to protect
wolves, a species once eradicated from
Oregon, largely by the cattle industry.
A USDA agency, Wildlife Services,
routinely kills predators that threaten
livestock on the taxpayer’s dime. The
government also reimburses ranchers for
livestock killed by wolves.
While there are laws in place meant to
protect public lands from overgrazing and to
keep cows out of sensitive habitats, during
interviews for this story, Street Roots was
told repeatedly that regulators are too close
to the people they regulate to be truly
effective.
“Most of the people that work in that
ranger district live in that community,” Rule
said. “It’s hard to say, ‘I’m going to screw
you by cutting your permit by 50 cows
because I’m supposed to be protecting
those species - sorry about that Fred, but
treet Roots visited two farms where the
cows appeared healthy and happy, the
land was cared for, and riparian areas were
effectively fenced off.
At Verdant Hills
Farm near
McMinnville, Rich
and Michael Butler go
above and beyond
organic.
On hot days, they
position a water
mister out in the
pasture by their herd
to keep the cattle
cool and hire a
licensed slaughterer to come out to their
farm so they don’t have to subject their
cows to travel, which can induce a lot of
stress.
Both the Butlers and Jon Bansen, owner
of Double J Jerseys, an organic dairy,
practice intensive rotational grazing, which
builds up the complexity of the soil and
helps sequester carbon dioxide.
On the downside, while their herds’
quality of life is better than grain-fed cows
kept in confinement, their cows are emitting
three times the methane because they’re
grass fed.
Whereas conventional practice is to spray
a cow with pesticides to kill flies, at the
C
I’ll see you at the basketball game tomorrow
night.’”
We spoke with a former BLM employee
who agreed to speak with us on condition of
anonymity, as this person still does contract
work with the agency.
“Jordan” is familiar with BLM
rangeland management practices
across the Northwest.
“A lot of those (BLM)
range people,” Jordan said,
“sometimes they’re from
the city and sometimes
they’re from rural areas -
federal livestock
but they have an almost
subsidies paid in
religious zealous to try to
Oregon between
promote cattle grazing.
“Some of the range
conservationists have spoken up,
and they just get in trouble for
reporting abuse because the ranchers
are the wealthy property owners, and they
apply pressure to the managers through
indirect means,” Jordan said. “I know a
wildlife biologist that was in the field and
happened upon some cows in the wrong
place and reported it. He ends up getting
two weeks’ suspension without pay
because the manager didn’t think he was
prioritizing his work the way he was
cow is typicall
supposed to or something like that. It’s
absurd. When you see that happen, you
send a message: Don’t bring this up.”
4
1-2
a
There’s
got to be a
better way
PH OTO BY A R K A D Y BROW N
S
FARMERS’ MARKET
WEDNESDAYS 2-7PM
Butler’s cattle ranch, chickens follow the
cows, eating fly larvae. At Bansen’s dairy,
swallows eat the insects, and the co
walk through a fly vacuum on their
way to being milked twice a day.
“The first thing a cow does when
you spray her with pesticides is she
licks herself,” Bansen said. “Now
you have that in the system -
another reason for organic.”
He started his career as a
conventional dairy operator - just like his
father, grandfather and great-grandfather
before him.
C o o iliw e d o n p a g e 11
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