Growing crops to feed animals requires a lot more land, energy and fertilizer than growing them to feed people, he says: 70% of the land that was once Amazon rain forest is dedicated to grazing.
The National Forest Service, from which many ranchers rent grazing land, may require them to graze fewer cattle, in order to encourage native grasses and wildlife.
Now, at 43, he and his wife, Julie , have bought two ranches in southwest Montana-the 1, 800-acre Beaverhead Ranch, with 5 miles of the Beaverhead River running through it, and the 2, 000-acre Big Hole Ranch, which rises 1, 500 feet from the Big Hole River up to grazing land for a herd of 400 elk that borders a national forest.