“We were closer to God when we worked the land,” is a line I often heard from a now deceased liberal politician.

If what she said is true we are moving far, far away from God in the United States of America

Mario Cuomo was quoting his mother, an immigrant from Italy who settled in urban Queens, New York.  If what she said is true we are moving far, far away from God in the United States of America.

Two stories caught my attention over the weekend.  One from the Wall Street Journal examined small ranchers in the mountain west facing bankruptcy.  While many allege ranchers grazing cattle on government controlled land are freeloading, grazing rights were issued originally as a matter of policy.  A distant government offered the rights to encourage settlement.  A left-wing environmentalist from Idaho is cited in the story.  He rails against grazing.  It makes me wonder where bison grazed when the animals numbered in tens of millions.  Since the animals free ranged they must have passed through sagebrush country.  Also, it contradicts comments from a professor in a recent edition of the Times-News.  She praised benefits of cattle in sage country.

In a separate story a writer warned about the loss of family farms in the East and Midwest.  Dairy incomes have been stagnant for most of 45 years.  You can read the story from Two Sparrows Farm here.

Both stories reveal food production is being centered in fewer and fewer hands.  Can we trust those hands?  Many are attached to corporate board rooms and unlike the late Mrs. Cuomo aren’t directly working the land.

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