This Land: How Capitalism, Cowboys and Corruption are Ruining the American West

You’ve seen them, they are everywhere, cows grazing on public lands in the West. They produce little profit and contribute only a minuscule amount to the total beef production of the US. So why are they there? Mostly to fulfill the pseudo-libertarianan cowboy myth that a rancher is an independent man beholden to no one. Unfortunately for this illusion, his grazing rights and many other necessities are heavily subsidized by the federal government. The environmental costs are significant as well. So why do our tax dollars enable this practice? This book explores who profits and who pays when public lands are open to grazing with regulations that are constantly flouted, ignored and unenforced. As a botanist and former rancher, this issue is important to me so I really want to join in a discussion about it.