Grazing Quotes

“The argument goes like this: even if public grazing contributes almost nothing to local economies and national food production, it nonetheless supports "an important western lifestyle and the rural west's social and cultural fabric." If we keep ranchers working on the range, on the big wide-open of the public domain, we ensure the historical continuity of a "custom" that has gone on for close to 150 years.”
― Christopher Ketcham, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West

“The top 10 percent of grazing-permit holders on federal lands own 50 percent of all livestock on those lands; the bottom 50 percent own just 5 percent.”
― Christopher Ketcham, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West

“In eastern Oregon and Washington, where grazing reigns supreme, an estimated 90 percent of the sage biome is gone.”
― Christopher Ketcham, This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West

“Still with her head out the window, she had spied a stone-fenced pasture beyond the gardens. Half a dozen glorious white horses grazed there, the faint dapples of their coats gleaming like silver coins in the sunshine. As she watched, a coal-gray foal galloped in a circle around its elders, tossing its head and flicking its tail.
"Such beautiful horses!" she called to the footman.
"Yes, miss. My lord's Andalusians."
"Indeed! I thought they must be!"
Suddenly she couldn't wait to escape the confines of the carriage. For a moment she felt like her usual self, thrumming with energy, avid to run through the gardens to the pasture, to lean across the stone fence to admire those horses.”
― Louisa Morgan, The Age of Witches

“The increasingly one-dimensional use of land stands in stark contrast to the mixed arable and pastoral economies of the bailtean which, in turn, sustained socially complex communities. These township populations nurtured knowledge production systems that enabled mixed land management strategies. This was underpinned by communal, rule-based approaches to foreshores, grazing, and fuel assets which were taken to be common pool resources. Local resources could then be exploited through a consciously integrated and diverse set of micro-economies.”
― Iain MacKinnon, Plantation Slavery and Land Ownership in the West Highlands and Islands