The seller has complete freedom to protect his land if he chooses. No one says such a choice is easy, and the pressures that can drive a family to sell its land can be enormous. But the reality is that if one landowner is entitled to choose profit over preservation, then all other landowners are entitled to make the same choice. Communities that work together can protect their common interests, including a way of life based on agriculture. This requires cooperation among ranchers, farmers, townsfolk and local government.
Cooperation involves a balance between individual freedoms and responsibility toward a common goal.
It is, ultimately, the only real solution. Let us first look to our own choices and responsibilities before we look for someone else to shoulder the blame. There were meetings to hear public opinion, but supposedly the commissioners are bound by law not to let public opinion sway their decision. Currently in Helena there is a bill being proposed, BB335, that would require the Montana DEQ to allow for public hearings on all feedlots being planned. I assume that public opinion would count here.