It’s not often the words “park” and “ranch” appear in the same sentence describing the same parcel of land but it seemed only natural when rancher John Copithorne brought his homespun environmental philosophy to the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park last week.
He brought a certain credibility to the ranchers’ perspective on the environment in Alberta. Those are his cattle grazing in the park, and he came a bit early to go and check on them on the frigid evening.
He recounted how amazed he still is when he sees the way animals adapt to different environments.
He’s seen them mosey onto higher ground as they sense a chinook arch coming, to seek out the warmer winds at the tops of the hills.
“A cow will go a long way for two degrees of warmth,” he said. “You let cows do what cows do and they do a very good job of looking after themselves.”
A raconteur and auctioneer of note, Copithorne warned the crowd he was going to be “edgy” and might offend some of them with his take on some commonly-held beliefs and perspectives on environmental issues. On that front his talk, “The World Needs More Ranchers” didn’t disappoint.
Some of those present didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at certain points.
He said he wasn’t there to make people mad, but to “inspire thought.”
The gist of his message was more people need to recognize that relying on technology to address environmental challenges isn’t going to work. Mother Nature laughs at that.
Many technologies have been touted as the solution to damage done by previous technologies, he said.
In the same room that has hosted a variety of environmentalists, ornithologists, a PhD studying native grasses, and ecologists invited by the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation, the fourth-generation rancher was back for his second presentation by popular demand.
He revealed his classroom credentials early. He does have Grade 10 Biology, but that was because his uncle was the teacher who gave him a 50 per cent grade so he wouldn’t come back.
He relies on the “hard knocks school of farming.”
Every environment, he said, is subject to one overriding principle: Mother Nature rules, and if any one species (plant or animal) grows too fast in numbers, they will die out until things are brought back into balance.
Death is the common denominator.
“Ten to 15 animals in this park alone, will flourish when one of my cows dies,” he said.
Relying on new technologies to help us mitigate the effects of previous technologies is the first mistake humans make, he said, as it ignores the fundamentals of how Mother Nature works.
“She is our boss. Period. She makes it rain, we prosper. She wants to have drought, we suffer. She doesn’t send us a memo if she’s mad, with a forewarning saying ‘You know what, there’s some s**t comin down, boys,’” he said with a laugh.
Not surprisingly, Copithorne had trouble understanding the thinking behind plant-based “meat.”
“What a great idea that was. Let’s take plants, add a bunch of ingredients, and turn it into red meat,” he said.
“Isn’t that a brilliant idea? What the hell’s a cow for?” he asked.
He cited the wildfires in Los Angeles as an example of what can happen when humans try to manage micro-environments on the advice of “experts.”
Building communities into the hills where underbrush is lush – no matter where in the world it happens – is just asking for trouble, he said.
There had to be water there at some point to support the thick undergrowth, he said.
“But a drought’s going to come along, and a fire’s going to happen,” he said. “And we’ve built this big bomb,” he said.
Copithorne said Bearspaw has also built a similar fire “bomb” by allowing trees and undergrowth to thrive between houses, with only one road in and one road out in a lot of places.
From his time on the Calgary Stampede Board, Copithorne said they heard from some food supply researchers who told the board that by 2050, they’d be seeing food shortages in the world.
“So for anyone around the age of 50, guess what? By the time you die, you’re going to be part of the food shortage,” he said.
“So here’s some numbers you can chew on,” he said with a smile.
“If the whole world ate like we do in North America – we love our steaks, we love everything – we’d only be able to feed 2.8 billion people,” he said.
There are about seven billion people on earth now, with some projections going up to nine or 10 billion by 2050.
True to his word about being “edgy,” and in the most emotional moment of the talk, Copithorne compared the rules ranchers must follow to how humans are treated.
There are a multitude of regulations governing what ranchers can and cannot do to prevent suffering in animals.
Copithorne said by the time his kids were 12-years-old, they’d seen more suffering than anyone in the room.
“If I have a cow suffering I either get her healthy or I put her down,” he said.
He then cited a relative who’s in a long-term care facility.
“It’s criminal. It’s cruel. By God, if I did that on my ranch . . . I’d be in jail in a heartbeat.”
Copithorne closed off with a recognition of how lazy society is getting. He cited the example of paying thousands of dollars for stationary bikes “that don’t even go anywhere.”
And, he said, now we’re facing AI technologies as well.
“We don’t want to get off our arse and do anything, and now we don’t even want to think,” he said.
