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| | Waste of the West: Public Lands Ranching |
 | | Through the years, the public lands grazing industry has been quietly receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, corrupting our political system, defiling the social fabric of the rural West, and, perhaps worst of all, devastating the Western environment -- all to produce a tiny fraction of US meat. |
 | | Few of us are exposed to ranching other than through the usual fictional renderings of the romantic "Old West," as on TV and in Western literature. |
 | | Nevertheless, this nostalgic, idealistic image we have all been reared with is a vast falsehood, a monumental myth preserved by baseless tradition, our own yearning for romanticism, and the ranching establishment's efforts to capitalize on our yearnings. |
| www.wasteofthewest.com (1514 words) |
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