First, only 3 per cent of the beef produced on public lands is sold to the Ameeican people. That means 97 per cent is exported. Cattle produced in other regions in the country where people either own their own farms or lease grazing land from private owners at much higher rates than $1.35 for a cow and calf per month. Hundreds of thousands of American furniture craftsman, textile workers, newspaper writers, tobacco farmers, auto-makers, and others have been forced to retrain or take other positions. Just because you want to ranch, doesn’t mean tax payees owe you a subsidized living. Ranchers using public lands talk like they think they are entitled to the land. Those potters in Vermont and salmon fishermen in Alaska have paid taxes on public lands just like the ranchers have. However, unlike the ranchers who pay around $20.00 to raise a couple of cows to sell to market for over $1,000 profit, tax payers in other parts of the country aren’t benefitting financially from their investment.
You make a lot of generalizations about people who would like to see the cattle industry lose it’s death grip on public lands. Had the BLM been following the laws it is supposed to be following instead of manipulating them in every way possible for ranchers, perhaps I and others would have more sympathy for your position. But, as it is, ranchers are asking American citizens to pay for a product they want to produce but that is totally unnecessary to enhance the lives of the Americsn people. Most of us do not buy your beef (no pun intended).
