Dear HCN,
Your article on the
Sierra Club’s zero-cow initiative (HCN, 2/26/01: ‘Zero-Cow’
initiative splits Sierra Club), as with so many pieces that
HCN does related to grazing issues, once again
misrepresents the issues by trying to create a black and white –
either/or – situation.
The article portrays the
Sierra Club’s zero-grazing initiative as a misinformed effort by
“urban environmentalists” who know nothing about the “real” West or
have no compassion for those affected. And because the article
specifically dealt with Hispanics in New Mexico, there is even a
not-so-subtle suggestion that those seeking to end the subsidized
destruction of the West by cows are somehow racist or rich
elitists. Of course this is exactly what those opposed to this
initiative want everyone to believe, and your writer certainly
provided nothing to counter this perspective.
But
as one of the leaders of the Sierra Club’s zero-cow movement, I can
say without hesitation that the staunchest supporters of zero cows
are well acquainted with the West’s public lands and know from
first-hand experience the multiple ecological impacts wrought by
cows. We don’t just sit in the city discussing some theoretical
West, as the article implied. And most of us aren’t rich
either.
Second, we believe there are alternative
ways of making a living in the West than by pounding the soil to
pulp, trampling riparian areas into muddy quagmires and driving
hundreds of species to extinction. We are a rich country * rich in
both creativity and funds. It’s simply not a choice between having
cows trash the West or people having to live in caves without food,
water or electricity, as critics of any natural resource reform
often try to suggest.
The problems of poverty
faced by some rural Hispanic residents in New Mexico go well beyond
the issue of public-lands livestock production. And the solutions
to this poverty are going to involve far more than allowing anyone
to graze public lands or not.
If we use our
minds, I am positive we can find alternative solutions that provide
a brighter future for rural people while giving the land a well
deserved respite from abuse. But whether we can create these
solutions means going beyond simple black-and-white choices. The
greatest poverty faced in the rural West isn’t a lack of money, but
a poverty of imagination.
George
Wuerthner
Eugene,
Oregon
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A poverty of imagination.
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