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Showing posts from June, 2020

Buffalo to the Rescue!

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This story appeared in Rural America In These Times in 2020. For more on topics like this, see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle... .   Buffalo in a National Park Service park (photo NPS). “We  have always believed that bringing back the buffalo is important, but the pandemic shows that it is urgent , ”  said Wizipan Little Elk. “We are all talking about food security and what the new normal is going to be…We [at Rosebud] have to get back to our roots and provide an example for the rest of the world.” Little Elk, CEO of the Rosebud Economic Development Corporation (REDCO), is referring to the alarming problems the pandemic has exposed in the huge, centralized systems that provides most Americans with their food. Over the last several months, numerous large meat packers closed down after workers were found to be infected with coronavirus. Supply chain problems have caused many farmers to have to kill and dispose of millions of pigs and chickens, du