Wendell Berry argued for a vision of stewardship in which we, the creatures to whom God gave dominion over the planet, answer to Him for its care and keeping.

He was a poetic writer, a soulful thinker, a man of deep conviction, an unashamed advocate for America's farms and ranches and small towns. He loved the working landscapes of this country as much as he loved its "wilderness."

He was friendly with another great nature writer of his day; Edward Abbey, who hated ranching, and butted heads with his friend Wendell from time to time.

Their back-and-forth in Earth First! magazine over Berry's essay "Preserving Wildness" presents two views of land use and is as relevant today as it was when these two brilliant men bickered politely and publicly, to our enduring edification, in 1988.

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Following President Trump’s decision to import up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef without tariffs to lower consumer prices—which drew fire from ranchers—he announced Friday that he wants to make it easier for ranchers to process their own meat.

“I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow farmers and ranchers to be given the right to process their own food. This should move quickly,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins followed up, adding that “big announcements” for the ranching sector are on the way, starting Monday.

These announcements will include: waiving red tape in processing, expanding ranchers’ ability to sell across state lines, rescinding outdated guidance, adding technology for faster safety data, expanding support for small processors through funding and deregulation, fighting consolidation so small processors can compete, and expanding truth in labeling.

“The world is hungry for American beef,” said Rollins.

Trump’s announcement does not repeal any food safety laws. The administration has not yet released formal plans or elaborated on which regulations it believes it can change. It’s important to note that much of the federal meat inspection system is established by Congress, not USDA regulation.

The beef with processing laws

As it stands, ranchers can sell meat directly to consumers so long as the animal was harvested and cut under federal or state inspection.

Only federally-inspected meat can be sold across state lines; state-inspected meat generally is limited to intrastate commerce unless the establishment participates in the federal Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program.

There are 937 federally inspected cattle slaughter plants in the nation. Of the 29.25 million cattle slaughtered last year, almost half were slaughtered by 11 giant facilities. The 888 smallest plants slaughtered just 1.92 million, or 7.14% of the total.

Depending on location, these plants can get booked up quickly. Some processors report kill dates are booked 6-12 months out, creating a real bottleneck for producers.

What can the president do?

Most of the requirements governing commercial meat inspection are established by federal law, not agency rules. The president is therefore limited in what he can accomplish through executive order or unilateral USDA action.

The Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) generally requires that all cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats slaughtered for commercial sale in interstate commerce must be federally inspected, with limited exemptions.

There are a few deregulatory actions the president and USDA could take. The administration could rescind or revise FSIS directives, which don’t require rulemaking. It could pursue rulemaking to change the inspection regulations themselves. It could waive overtime and holiday inspection fees, which small plants pay out of pocket.

There’s also the money. Since 2021, USDA has spent about $1 billion to expand and support small and mid-sized processors. The administration has significant discretion over how funds are spent.

Trump could also encourage more states to participate in the Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program. Eleven states are currently in the program—Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin—which allows participating state-inspected plants to ship eligible meat products across state lines.

He could also enforce laws already on the books. Advocates have long argued that antitrust laws, especially the Packers & Stockyards Act, have not been properly enforced against the highly concentrated beef packing industry. The four largest beef packers—JBS USA, Tyson Foods, Cargill, and National Beef—dominate the industry, controlling about 85% of all beef processing in the U.S.

What about MCOOL?

One thing the president cannot do is perhaps what producers want most. Mandatory country of origin labeling—or MCOOL—has been the biggest ask from ranchers for years. Congress repealed the beef and pork MCOOL requirement in 2015 due to pressure from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Reinstating mandatory labeling would require congressional action.

There’s some good news there. Earlier this month, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted 17-6 to include a provision requiring MCOOL in the 2026 Farm Bill. All Democrats voted for the amendment, along with six Republicans.

The larger Farm Bill remains stalled in committee due to pushback from Democrats on other issues, particularly SNAP provisions.

The USDA already did the next best thing. The voluntary “Product of USA” rule, which took effect January 1, 2026, now limits that claim to animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States. Before that, meat could be labeled “Product of the USA” if it was minimally processed or packaged here, even if the animal originated elsewhere.

What about the PRIME Act?

Congressman Thomas Massie has a bill called the PRIME Act (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act) that would amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act, creating a pathway for states to allow certain small, custom-exempt slaughter and processing operations to sell meat directly to consumers within the state.

The House-passed version of the 2026 Farm Bill includes a PRIME Act pilot program. The Farm Bill passed the House 224-200 in April but remains stalled in the Senate.

There is a way around the federal inspection system for ranchers, or consumers who buy animals. They can have their animal slaughtered and processed for their own use at a custom-exempt processor. The resulting cuts can’t be sold, and must be marked “Not for Sale.”

Internecine warfare

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) opposes weakening federal meat inspection standards on food safety grounds.

The largest beef lobby in the nation, NCBA posted in opposition to the president’s announcement Friday—enraging producers.

“NCBA supports more competition, more opportunities for small & regional processors, and eliminating unnecessary regulations but weakening federal meat inspection & food safety standards isn’t the answer,” the statement read. “America’s cattle producers have earned consumer trust in U.S. beef over generations. That trust, and the gold standard food safety system behind it, shouldn’t be put at risk for a short-term political fix. Washington should focus on reducing legitimate regulatory burdens, lowering input costs, protecting the herd from foreign animal disease & expanding processing opportunities—not managing the cattle business.”

The post was “ratioed,” receiving more replies than likes.

“NCBA goes right back to work for corporate beef packers,” responded Jim Mundorf of the Lonesome Lands podcast.

“Yet again the NCBA backs the big four processors and sells out every family rancher in the country,” wrote an Oklahoma rancher.

Many independent producers want more local and regional processing capacity and less regulatory burden. Some have complained for years that NCBA’s policy positions track the interests of bigger players in the beef supply chain—not individual producers.

Past administrations have been largely closed off to appeals from independent producers, represented by smaller lobby groups like R-CALF USA. Trump’s second administration, and particularly Rollins, has broken with recent administrations by elevating small producers and their representatives—and making their concerns a much bigger part of the conversation.

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Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io. Two week trial available now, including weekly onboarding calls, free of charge.

Show Notes

The lactating steer study: Petit, Eckhardt, Lucherk, Schwartz, Brown and Lawrence, “Outcomes of Unintended Consequences: Frequency of Lactation and Intact Males and Their Impact in Finished Cattle.” West Texas A&M University with a Cargill co-author. AMSA 2024 abstract, expanded as a poster at the 2025 Plains Nutrition Council Spring Conference.

The beef import announcement: Trump to allow import of 300,000 metric tons of ground beef without tariff (CNBC)

The fight inside the administration: “Knives out”: Internal fighting skewers Trump’s beef tariff plan (E&E News by POLITICO)

MCOOL and the Farm Bill: Senate advances beef MCOOL even as Farm Bill stalls (Capital Press)

American Beef Labeling Act, S.421

R-CALF USA on the House Farm Bill and the MCOOL amendment

Beef prices: BLS average price, fresh regular 100% ground beef, via FRED. $6.885 per pound, July 2026.

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

We talk about what he's learned in Washington, the water bill he's naming for LaMalfa, why he thinks the Scott Dam seismic case is bogus, wolves killing cattle in Lassen County, the proposal to bring grizzlies back to California, cartel grows stealing a billion gallons of water a year from public lands, and his pitch to Democrats in a district that now runs from Susanville to Santa Rosa.

Gallagher is a sixth-generation Sutter County farmer, former Assembly Republican Leader, and now the newest member of California’s congressional delegation.

Show Notes

James Gallagher for Congress

Sponsored by RanchVision, the software ranchers use to boost profits and make better decisions: ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

The country music star posted a video to his X account speaking out against PG&E’s application to remove the dams.

“This actually stunned me, and that's hard to do.”

He says removing Scott and Cape Horn Dams would devastate the region.

“It would cut off the water supply to 750,000 Californians. 390 family farms downstream from the dam where they use this water for irrigation, over 300,000 acres of farmland that use that water. And then you look at the fire service out there putting out the California fires in that area. That's where they get their water from.”

PG&E’s dam removal application is currently pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Rich calls on FERC commissioners to do the right thing. The Supreme Court decided in Trump v. Slaughter that the president has the right to fire leaders and employees of independent federal agencies. Rich points out that this includes FERC commissioners.

Rich was appointed to represent rural landowners, farmers, and ranchers in the Trump administration. He says in that capacity, he will make sure the president is aware of the situation playing out in Northern California.

“I'm going to make sure he sees this report, make sure he's up to speed on what's going on at Potter Valley Dam because there is no way in Hell he's going to be okay with decommissioning a dam that causes that much carnage in the state of California.”

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Kevin Muno just made it two.

He is a first generation producer, a former college baseball player with no agricultural background, and he built the only certified raw milk dairy in Southern California from scratch. This conversation covers how he did it, what the regulatory path actually looked like, and why he thinks the future of dairy is bioregional rather than national.

We also get into where the food influencer conversation has gone wrong, the grain vs. grass-finished debate, and who should be leading the MAHA discussion.

Show Notes

Find Kevin:
Perennial Pastures Ranch: perennialpasturesranch.com
Instagram: @perennialpasturesranch
X: @regenranching

Mentioned in this episode:
The Paleo Diet by Dr. Loren Cordain
Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard
Allan Savory and holistic management
Johan Zietsman, ultra high density grazing
Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI)
Dr. Weston A. Price
Happy Hens Egg Farm, Ramona, CA
Regenified

Sponsored by RanchVision, the software ranchers use to boost profits and make better decisions: ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

Retired Lt. John Nores spent 28 years as a California game warden, and most of that career fighting a hidden war most Americans don’t know is happening. In 2005, he was ambushed by cartel gunmen in the mountains above Silicon Valley, within eyesight of the eBay campus. His partner took an AK-47 round through both legs and nearly bled out waiting three hours for rescue. Out of that day came the Marijuana Enforcement Team or MET, the elite tactical unit Nores co-founded and led for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

He talks about what it’s like to walk into a cartel grow on public land, the banned nerve agent poisons killing wildlife and watersheds, poisoned cannabis reaching legal dispensary shelves and unwitting consumers, the billion gallons of water stolen every year, trafficked workers imprisoned at grow sites, the Chinese crime groups partnering with Mexican cartels, the war’s shifting front to the Northern border and tribal lands, and the full story of what happened on August 5, 2005.

John Nores is the author of Hidden War and War in the Woods, a recipient of the Governor’s Medal of Valor, star of three seasons of Nat Geo’s Wild Justice, and co-host of the Thin Green Line podcast. He founded El Oasis, a nonprofit sheltering orphaned children in Baja, Mexico. Now retired, he lives in Montana with his family.

Show Notes

Read John Nores’ books:

• Hidden War, 2nd Edition (foreword by Jack Carr):

• War in the Woods

Follow John:

• Instagram: @johnnores

• Website

Mentioned in this episode:

• John’s congressional testimony, “Securing Our Border: Saving Our National Parks,” House Committee on Natural Resources

• His second testimony, “Cartel Impacts to Tribal Lands throughout America”

• NARCOFORNIA, Daily Caller documentary featuring John Nores

• Nat Geo’s Wild Justice, three seasons featuring John Nores and the MET

• Hippies & Cowboys: The Murder of Mendocino County Rancher Dick Drewry, my written investigation into an unsolved killing on Bell Springs Road

• High Country Murder, the documentary short streaming free at Real Clear Politics, directed by Keely Covello & Michaela Gillies

Show credits:

• Produced and edited by Josh Woolwine

• Intro by Josh Woolwine

For almost 20 years, students attending the Texas FFA Convention in Fort Worth have stopped by the Fellowship of Christian Farmers International (FCFI) booth. Volunteers pass out beaded …

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Keely Covello has covered this story since January of 2025. More than 18 months, close to 20 articles, interviews with the ranchers, ecologists, attorneys, and neighbors watching a 150-year-old community dissolve in real time.

With the ending now days away, this episode of The Read is the whole story, start to finish, in one place for the first time. If you have followed along, this is the story assembled into a single arc. If you are new to it, this is everything you need to know about what happened here, and why it should matter to you no matter where you live in the United States.

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The episode runs through the parts of this story that never made the national coverage:

The whistleblower. A former Park Service superintendent documented the government’s playbook in 2006, such as using water-quality complaints as a weapon to get ranchers off the Channel Islands. Then he stood in front of the Point Reyes families in 2014 and told them they were next.

The scientist. A grazing ecologist turned rancher who gathered 10 years of data showing how the ranchers and their cattle benefited Point Reyes and tried in vain to get someone at the Park Service to care.

The Blackhawk. The 1997 raid on the last holdout ranch on Santa Cruz Island. Officers in ski masks pulled a 15 year-old girl out of bed, as the government mobilized to seize the last piece of private land in Channel Islands National Park.

The lawfare. The ranchers won their environmental review, earned a recommendation for renewed 20-year leases, and then watched the same green groups sue again because they did not like the outcome.

The conspiracy. Internal emails revealed Park Service officials, who portrayed themselves themselves as neutral, celebrated the ranchers’ removal. Did they conspire with the NGOs all along to get the ranchers out?

The money. The $10 million state grant The Nature Conservancy secured before the deal was finalized, that the ranchers were never told existed. The $40 million in donor dinners hosted in Marin County mansions to discuss “the future of Point Reyes” over wine and appetizers. Congressman Jared Huffman who brought the NGO into the talks and then hosted the town hall for a post-mortem after the papers were already signed.

The last rancher standing. David Evans, the one rancher free to speak because he never signed an NDA, who gave UNWON his first interview.

This is not only a California story. The same agency, running the same playbook, has now moved ranchers off many places across the United States. Open questions remain, and UNWON is not done following this story.

Listen to the full episode above. All of the reporting behind it, close to 20 pieces, is here on UNWON.

The Read is UNWON’s narrated journalism, reported and hosted by Keely Brazil Covello. This episode is a retrospective drawn from 18 months of coverage.

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Show Notes

• The Point Reyes Act of 1962 and the 1978 amendment, codified at 16 U.S.C. § 459c-5, which gave the ranching families first right of refusal on their leases

• Chris Bray’s FOIA reporting on the National Park Service emails

• Sonoma Mountain Institute grassland monitoring data referenced by Nate Chisholm

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

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All but two of the bought-out ranching families have left Point Reyes.

“It’s devastating,” says Albert Straus, founder of Straus Family Creamery in Marin County. Two of the departing dairies were his suppliers. More than his business, he mourns his community.

“We’ve lost over 200 people between the farm families a…

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Josepha Littlewolf Thunderheart Basurto, age 31, was found shot to death in a pickup truck near the Round Valley Indian Reservation northwest of Covelo, California. Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall believes her murder is connected to “transnational drug organizations and illegal ma…

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Steve Hilton is running to restore California’s unique spirit. The Republican nominee for governor says his campaign isn’t partisan; he believes government should get the basics right—roads, schools, public safety, water—then leave people alone.

He calls it the rebel spirit: the soul of a state built by people who did things their own way, now smothered by a bureaucracy that tells Californians what to drive, how to build, makes their lives unbearably expensive, and destroys the infrastructure that built the state.

Hilton was born in London to parents who escaped communist Hungary, ran domestic policy from 10 Downing Street, then chose California, and American citizenship. He’s campaigned across the state, and wrote the book on its decline (Califailure).

In this conversation, Steve Hilton goes deep on the issues impacting rural California:

Water. Trump’s “giant spigot” is real; he’s seen it. Hilton discusses how bureaucrats decide what flows through the Delta pumps, and why he says he can raise deliveries almost immediately, no new construction required. Plus his on-record commitment to protecting the Potter Valley dams and supporting a buyer.

Power. Behested payments, “legalized corruption,” breaking up PG&E, $3 gas, and why working people are subsidizing Teslas they’ll never drive.

Land. Wolves attacking cattle while ranchers face arrest; why predator decisions should be returned to counties. Cartels in the forests and a governor who has never once met with the state’s sheriffs. Bringing back the timber industry; six billion board feet a year, now down to about a billion and a half, while lumber is trucked in from Canada and overgrown forests burn.

Winning. He talks about what happened to Spencer Pratt in L.A., the ground game Charlie Kirk helped him plan, and the math: (6 million votes takes the state, and Trump got 6.1 million here in 2024).

Hilton makes his pitch to the ranchers and hippies, farmers and libertarians, loggers and back-to-the-landers of California’s forgotten half, united mostly by being governed by people who have never set foot in their counties. Whatever your politics, if you live on this side of California, this conversation is about your water, your power bill, your forests, your future.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

Referenced in this episode:

• Steve Hilton for Governor: stevehiltonforgovernor.com

• Califailure: Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst-Run State by Steve Hilton

• Golden Together — Achieving Water Abundance, the water blueprint co-authored with Edward Ring, and the Modern Forest Management paper: goldentogether.com

• High Country Murder — Keely’s documentary on the unsolved killing of Mendocino County rancher Dick Drewry in the Emerald Triangle: americaunwon.com/p/film

• UNWON’s Potter Valley coverage: Rollins and Burgum convene meeting between PG&E and potential dam buyers · Secretary Rollins fires back at Huffman · Who would want the Potter Valley dams? Meet Darcy Burke of Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District

• UNWON: UC Davis study finds beef is the main food source for California wolves

• Victor Davis Hanson — Is California Reaching Critical Mass?

On Friday, the Trump administration announced the single most significant Endangered Species Act (ESA) reform in decades: the federal government will no longer interpret habitat modification as “harm” to endangered species.

It marks a seismic change in the way the ESA is enforced that could reshape everything from ranching and logging to commercial fishing, homebuilding, water management, and energy development. Supporters say the move will end decades of overreach and a habitat mitigation micro-economy built around regulatory compliance.

The Trump administration says this restores the original meaning of the ESA, in compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision to end Chevron deference—the legal precedent that once allowed unelected officials to develop rules based on their interpretations of laws passed by Congress.

The heart of the dispute

The debate centers around the meaning of the word “harm” in the text of the ESA. The ESA, passed in 1973, outlaws “take” of endangered plants and animals. It defines “take” as to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”

In 1981, government agencies expanded on the word “harm” to include any meaningful impact to a listed species’ habitat. This allowed the government enormous power over any industry and land uses they deemed impactful to those habitats.

Trump’s Commerce and Interior Departments now say this interpretation is too broad—“harm” only means affirmative acts that do direct damage to a listed plant or animal.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says the old interpretation was weaponized against industries and private property rights.

“For years, federal agencies abused the ESA to obstruct lawful land use and burden American families and businesses,” said Burgum in a news release. “This action restores common sense, respects private property, provides much-needed certainty for landowners and follows the statute Congress actually passed.”

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) first proposed getting rid of the old definition in April 2025, opening a public comment period that drew thousands of responses from environmental organizations, industry groups, states, and private citizens. On Friday, the agencies finalized that rule, largely as proposed, clearing the way for it to take effect after publication in the Federal Register unless blocked by a court. Rather than write a narrower definition of “harm,” the agencies are deleting the 1981 regulatory definition altogether—letting the original statute stand alone.

Analysts estimate annual savings up to $521 million

This reform is in keeping with Trump’s larger vision for deregulation and cutting red tape.

Officials say the move will not just unshackle industry and restore private property rights, it will cut costs. An entire cottage industry has grown around the 1981 definition of harm: a roughly $10 billion habitat-restoration economy supporting more than 53,000 jobs.

Until now, private landowners, developers, timber operators, and other producers needed an incidental take permit (ITP) before initiating activities that could impact a protected species. To obtain such a permit, they had to submit a formal plan for mitigating habitat impact, called a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP).

By ending the era of broad habitat protection under the ESA, officials estimate annual savings of between $361.3 million and $521 million.

Environmental groups like Earthjustice are already vowing to sue.

“For the first time ever, a presidential administration now claims that species protected by the Endangered Species Act shouldn’t be safe from habitat modification that destroys where they live, raise their young, or search for food,” said Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles. “Let’s be clear: there is no support for the Trump administration’s rule—no scientific support, no legal support, no public support. We will see the Trump administration in court.”

But property rights and industry advocates see this as freeing citizens from subjective enforcement and overregulation.

During the comment period, as the Trump administration considered this regulation change, a coalition of more than 40 agriculture and property groups including the California Farm Bureau, Family Farm Alliance, National Milk Producers Federation, and Western Growers Association, filed a formal letter urging officials to drop the old definition.

They argued federal agencies had used it to impose regulatory burdens based on “subjective preferences for the ecosystem rather than known consequences to individual members of a species.”

“To be clear, we live and work in the West, and we embrace our natural heritage. However, species recovery and economic prosperity do not have to be mutually exclusive,” the coalition wrote.

They argue the change will make ESA enforcement more predictable and effective by tying liability to direct injury of protected species instead of subjective judgments about potential habitat impacts.

Impacts to ranching, logging, and energy production

Supporters of the new rule point to decades of high-profile disputes they say illustrate how the broad interpretation of “harm” reached far beyond direct injury to protected animals, influencing many aspects of American life.

Ordinary ranching operations such as grazing, water development, fencing, and brush clearing that modified habitat could count as a prohibited “take” and a violation of federal law. Many ranchers have been forced to obtain ITPs just to continue managing their herds, building expensive HCPs that often involved paying for mitigation or altering long-established grazing practices.

Restrictions around habitat for the lesser-prairie chicken restricted ranching operations and energy projects across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado for years.

The dunes sagebrush lizard, listed in 2024, blocked energy projects in the Permian Basin.

The spotted owl listing devastated logging across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, reducing timber employment in those regions by between 16,000 and 32,000 jobs according to one 2021 estimate.

Developers have also argued that habitat-based permitting requirements delayed residential construction and infrastructure projects in areas where listed species were present, even when no individual animal was harmed.

Officials cite end of Chevron deference

The 2024 Supreme Court case Loper Bright v. Raimondo brought about the end of so-called “Chevron deference”—a 1984 precedent that allowed government agencies to use best judgement in interpreting ambiguous laws. Post-Loper Bright, courts are no longer required to defer to agency interpretations.

Without Chevron, the Trump administration says the wide-reaching application of “harm” in the ESA is no longer acceptable.

In 1995, the Supreme Court upheld the broad definition of “harm” in Babbitt v. Sweet Home, finding it permissible under Chevron, though not compelled. A legal question remains: Does this decision hold in a post-Chevron landscape?

That question is likely to become central as environmental organizations challenge the Trump administration in federal court.

The new rule is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Tuesday, July 14, and is subject to a standard 60-day delay.

Ranchers in California’s rural north say wolves pose an existential threat to their cattle. New research from U.C. Davis backs them up: Cattle made up the majority of wolves’ diets in Northern California in 2022 and 2023.

For those two summ…

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The first episode of The Read, the new UNWON segment where I narrate my investigative reporting straight from the page, no cuts.

We open with “Pay to Play,” an investigation into REAL AZ Economic Development Group: a Navajo County, Arizona nonprofit run by sitting county officials, out of county offices, that took in more than a million dollars from the same wind and solar developers those officials were voting on.

It started with a multigenerational rancher named Casey Murph and a European solar company that turned up at his family’s grazing allotment. The question we set out to answer is the one that runs through the whole report: did that company just happen to find Casey Murph, or was he handed to them?

The Source Material:

This was my first work trip since having my baby in December, and I’m taking you along for this fitting kickoff to America’s 250th birthday week. It’s only right that the nation started its semiquincentennial celebration by honoring the men and women who feed it.

Rose Garden Dinner Honoring Farmers & Ranchers

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The flesh-eating parasite the U.S. wiped out 60 years ago is back across the border, and suddenly everyone has a PhD in parasitology.

This episode of Ranch Beat covers the facts: what New World Screwworm actually is, how it clawed its way back up through Central America and Mexico, steps the USDA is taking to address it, and why some of the loudest voices online are doing real damage with bad information.

Dr. Brazil, a large animal veterinarian of almost 40 years, walks ranchers through exactly what to watch for, how to treat it, and what really happens when APHIS shows up at the gate.

And they end where these stories always should: not with the grandstanders, but with the rancher who caught that very first case by paying close enough attention to a newborn calf. The quiet, daily care that the people who actually do this work never stop giving.

Show Notes

Sponsored by Ranch Vision: www.ranchvision.io

Special thanks to Josh Woolwine for creating our intro. Follow Josh at www.instagram.com/hjwoolwine.

Today, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins directed the Forest Service to change how it interacts with ranchers. She made it clear: Grazing on public land is a priority for the Trump Administration.

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