Two-thirds of Americans are classified as obese or overweight, a vast majority are afflicted with financial concerns, and 100 percent are affected by climate change and environmental degradation.
Huge numbers of us spend precious money on diet books, Nutrisystem, and gym memberships while gas guzzling food distribution trucks spew emissions across the country.
Yet hidden behind our rampant consumerism, a simple and overarching solution exists to address problems of obesity, finances, and the environment.
If you venture out past the cities and the exurban “mini ranch” developments, you will find a society of folks who are working hard to produce healthy, sustainable food while promoting good land stewardship. Colorado’s rangelands provide a bounty of ecosystem services, which are natural processes that sustain and fulfill human life.
Tangible goods such as food, fuel, and water as well as services such as climate regulation, soil quality, and pollination are all provided by natural ecosystems.
When a rancher is no longer able to make a living, he or she may be forced to sell to a developer. Those highly desirable exurban subdivisions, close to nature and close to the city, fragment wildlife habitats and pave over the very organisms that help sustain life.
Other ranchers who struggle financially may overgraze their land, which reduces water quality, destroys vegetation, and leads to soil erosion. All of these factors inhibit the ability of the land to provide us with food, wildlife, and climate regulation.
Most ranchers are providing these incredible services to us by caring for the land and open space around our cities. Rangelands not only feed the cattle that we eat for dinner, but also provide habitat for wildlife and sequester carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming.
In today’s economy, it can be difficult to spend the extra money at the grocery store for local, grass-fed, Colorado beef. However, if you know where your beef comes from and you know that rancher is acting as a good land steward, you are paying for clean water, clean air, a habitable climate, and the expansive views that Coloradoans take pride in.
In a country that is afflicted with an obesity epidemic and wastes at least 27% of its food, why don’t we all try to waste less and spend that money buying food that is not only local and natural, but produced in a way that maintains so many valuable ecosystem services? To save money, buy a whole “green” cow, half a cow, or share it with another family.
For example, look up Colorado’s Best Beef Company. This is a locally owned business raising all natural beef using renewable energy and efficient grazing methods that promote conservation and wildlife habitat.
Or try Salazar Natural Beef, a ranch that has been in Colorado for 100 years and raises all natural beef using a holistic management approach. Minimize the miles your food travels, support a local conservationist to maintain the beautiful Colorado landscape, and shrink your waistline (and waste-line) by only eating as much food as you need.
Megan Christensen is currently a graduate student in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University studying ecosystem services on working lands. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
