Recently on my personal Face Book page I shared a public radio link that Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance were featured in. It received lots of kudos and thanks, but it also received a negative comment from a friend. The dialog went something like this:
Friend: “And you know me, I don’t think any animal should be harvested to feed people”. 🙁
To which I replied: “Well… we can’t keep them all, as there is not enough room. I guess we could start shooting people, not to eat of course (unless they are of the tasty type – you know, free range and humanely harvested), but to make more room for the buffalo”.
To which another friend replied: “A modest proposal….”.
Now, before anyone takes offense, please know that the banter was all in good fun. Seriously though, I want to thank my friend for her comment, because it brings what can be an uncomfortable topic and puts it on the table for us all to discuss.
From my point of view, the only way to protect our range/grasslands is to somehow have them pay for themselves. One way of doing this is raising livestock and harvesting the animals responsibly and ethically for our food. These range/grasslands are critical in the lives of so many other species, from the microbes, bugs, birds, snakes, rabbits, badgers, foxes, coyotes, deer, antelope on up to the buffalo. Their home is getting smaller with every passing year.
Industrialized agriculture’s plow is nipping at every possible range/grassland. To see these large agricultural fields is to witness biodiversity’s death. Nothing grows there or lives there except for what is planted. Don’t get me wrong we need crop-lands, and there are still many family farms that operate in a sustainable way, with x amount of land to crops, and x amount of land to range/grass for livestock and all the other creatures that share the land.
Industrial monoculture farming. Image credit: Beyond Revolution
I do not believe in killing animals for sport, but I do believe in harvesting them respectfully for food. Our friend Rocky Afraid of Hawk says, that you have to stay true to your part of the deal. Respect the animals, love the animals, give them room to roam, and dignity in death. If you do all of these things and uphold your part of the promise, the animals will give themselves to you. It may sound a bit corny, but I have witnessed this.
With climate change and a growing population of over 7 billion people on the planet, there is no doubt we need to make ethical, reasonable food choices. At Wild Idea Buffalo Company we have a saying; “Eat meat, less of it, but of a higher nutritional and sustainable quality”.
Some may not like the harvesting of animals for personal consumption, and I do respect peoples eating choices. But, by not supporting or saying no to responsibly raised and humanely harvested animals for food, we are saying goodbye to our important range/grasslands, which so many creatures depend on. What will we lose when another mining opportunity is found? What will we lose when they produce round-up ready, drought resistant seeds?
The full NPR featured story can be found here: http://goo.gl/WPSBmx
Dan July musing touched on this subject too, “A Case For Selling Buffalo Meat”, which can be found here: http://goo.gl/xoo1Mnbuffalo-meat/
Comments 3
Very good article, we can’t please everyone so we do what we can. I agree with treating animals with respect.
I’ve seen your video on NETV and love it. I think your methods are so humane. Wish I could afford the products once in a while!
Wild Idea makes possible the lives of many many buffalo. These animals would not exist otherwise. Their life ends in a way that is much easier for them than animals in the wild who often die with unimaginable suffering.
We are stuck here on this earth not by our choice, and this is some of the best action that we know how to take – the reinstatement of the Buffalo.