Big Brother Beef’s US Checkoff Program — The scene is tense. Dozens of workers stand in front of a vast wall of computers displaying live feeds of trending conversations on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Ticker-tape style headlines from major news outlets flood other screens, flashing by in real-time as workers scan for key words and phrases that…

(Author’s note: In North America, though technically scientifically inaccurate, the words Bison and Buffalo are used interchangeably. I will do so here.) It is the summer of 2021, and I am on a road trip of National Parks with my boyfriend, celebrating our dual graduation from our master’s degree program…

Until the 1960s, American ranchers were dipping their cows in Arsenic — In the late 1800s, a new challenger arose to threaten the booming American cattle industry; the “Texas Fever Tick”. Or more specifically, two species of cattle tick. Boophilus microplus and Boophilus annulatus were found to host a parasite that killed the beefy European cattle breeds favored in the United States…

Where we went wrong with European cows, and how to fix it. — Black Angus. Herefords. Red Angus. Holstein. Charolais. These are some of the most popular cattle breeds in the United States. What do they all have in common? They all originate from across the pond. Stocky Black Angus, by far the most commonly seen cow in the United States, hail from…

Why use cyanide when you could use a llama? — Never, with them on guard need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief or an onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back.” Virgil While the vast majority of livestock ranchers in the United States need not fear an attack from Iberian brigands, this quote by the famous…

The Shady Business of National Park Maps — In the summer of 2021, I went on a road trip to explore as many National Parks west of the Mississippi River as I could hit. I was accompanied on this adventure by my boyfriend for the entire trip, and by my best friend for a portion of it. We…

Cows are getting bigger. So is their impact on the environment. — They say size doesn’t matter, but it certainly does when it comes to cows. The 95-billion-dollar beef industry has built itself around the premise that pounds become profit and has dedicated itself to increasing both at any cost. When cattle ranching first caught on in America, Texas Longhorns (wild descendants…

Can we marry design approaches to land management? — In previous articles I have proposed a “land management design” approach to the conundrum currently facing the US Government in regard to the wild horses on its public lands. …

I was five years old when we moved into the house that I still consider home. I distinctly remember my mother boosting me up over the fence so I could see the beautiful backyard and stare up into the canopy of one of the ancient oaks that shaded the property…