Member-only story
Free Speech: The Cowboy and His Cow
Monday, April 1st, 1985. Missoula, Montana. Edward Abbey approaches the podium and gives the following address.
“Cattle are a worldwide curse. Besides the methane they produce, cows are an excuse for burning the Amazon, the loss of which, many think, will be the tipping point for the global carbon exchange keeping the planet alive.”
-Doug Peacock, Was It Worth It?
Foreword
I was well into my adult years before I learned how to see the land. My first clear view of the American West broke my heart. At last, I saw how we’ve abused and depleted the land. At last, I saw that cattle, barbed wire, and cheatgrass are not native to our western landscapes.
After graduating high school and completing a few semesters of Junior College in California, I moved to Wyoming. The myth of the cowboy had seeped into me and I thought I wanted to become one. If I had known the works of Edward Abbey then, I could’ve saved myself the trouble. But in the early-2010s, I had not yet found my band of renegade naturalists.
