The production of beef also uses many resources that could otherwise be redistributed to feed hungry people. In academia, landowners are often portrayed as people who abuse their land the most because they make short term decisions fueled by profit concerns. Environmentalists pride themselves in keeping a larger, long-term vision in mind and feel they have a duty to educate the uninformed. Although this is a simplified version of the issues and sides, it hopefully provides a glimpse into why the conflict between environmentalists and ranchers seems unending. It's easy to sit in one place and judge a person in another.
Most people are well-intentioned, trying to do the best they can with the resources they have.
Perhaps if everyone recognized these basic similarities in each other, we would find that we're all not after such different things. All rights reserved.