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The Long Run · Episode 6 of 7 · 21 min

Grazing in the Climate Era: The Carbon Cost of Public-Land Cattle

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Public-land cattle emit about 12.4 million tons of CO2-equivalent a year, and the social cost runs roughly 100 times the grazing fees collected, for under 1.6% of America's beef. The episode lays out the climate ledger, steelmans the regenerative-grazing counter-claim, and poses the hinge question of whether near-free forage is the greatest good in the long run in an age of drought.

Who's who

Timeline

  1. 1905Transfer Act moves the forest reserves to Agriculture
  2. 2010Interagency group formalizes a federal social cost of carbon near $51 per ton
  3. September 2022Rennert et al. in Nature estimate the social cost of carbon near $185 per ton
  4. July 2023Kauffman et al. publish the climate ledger of Western public-land grazing
  5. November 2023EPA finalizes social cost of carbon estimates near $190 per ton
  6. March 2026Interior-Agriculture memorandum pushes for no net loss of grazing units

Still debated

Whether regenerative grazing builds meaningful soil carbon is unsettled, strong in wet grasslands but unproven at public-range scale. The result depends heavily on which social cost of carbon is used, and the 12.4 million ton figure moves with herd size and methane assumptions.

climatemethanesocial cost of carboncattleregenerative grazingpublic lands
← PreviousEnter the Goat: The Honest Case for Grazing on Public Land

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How One Arizona Hillside Built Modern ForestryGround Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot
How America Made Indigenous Fire a Crime, and Its ReturnThe Fire This Time · Episode 3Also features Gifford Pinchot
Why the U.S. Forest Service Loses Money Selling Public TimberThe Uncosted West · Episode 9Also features Gifford Pinchot