Letter to the Editor: Scaling back beef industry condemns small town Montana

Meatless Mondays for your school lunch program?  Meat grown in a petri dish from a foreign lab? These are questions we need to ask Governor Bullock. By his executive order, Montana is now obligated to advance the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. In order to meet the Paris objectives everything having a carbon footprint is on the table, including our beef industry.

At present, U.S. meat consumption is about 222 pounds per person per year. Nationally, the goal is to reduce this to 35 pounds per person.  In short, Bullock wants to cut Montana meat production by about 85 percent. Thus, our $2 billion per year cattle industry will be cut to $300 thousand per year. Just to bolster his presidential bid, he aims to cut our beef industry by $1.7 billion.

Several years ago, the Colstrip shutdown announcements were aired. A few “good will” dollars were thrown in later to seal the deal. Next, it was implied that market forces, not radical environmentalist lawsuits, were to blame. It is understandable believing these lies once.

Simply put, Colstrip was a beta test to determine if we Montanan’s would stand idly by. We did, thus, their beta test was highly successful. It isn’t surprising that today, we sit here with a signed executive order dictating Montana fall in line with the Colstrip example.

Is small town Montana to become ghost town Montana? Are we going to stand idle or are we going to write those letters?

TJ Smith

Billings, Montana