Bright Lines and Dark Hallows:
Investigating Revolutionary Localities in America
Tour Log:
Part3
I drove down I-5 listening to Neil Young. Heading south towards Los Angeles, it was colder than I had imagined it would be. I drove through the hills of the Central Valley, cut-up and smashed together by the geological forces of the area. About half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles stretching for miles off the side of I-5 were cows, thousands of cows. Just outside of Coalinga, California I got off the highway to get a closer look. I really couldn’t believe my eyes. It was as if there were a cattle exodus taking place. Attempting to find a spot off the side of the road to park was difficult. No Parking signs littered the area. It was apparent that whoever owned the ranch didn’t want people gawking. Even though the road off the highway wasn’t private, it was evident that private interests paid the bills in the area, and private business got first dibs on where one could, and could not, park – for starters.
Trucks ready to fill up with cattle drove down the road soon after my arrival. They were marked for Harris Ranch. When I reach Los Angeles I looked them up and it turned out that Harris Ranch is the leading cattle ranch in all of California. With this in mind consider these figures:
California is the largest agricultural economy in America, and the beef industry tops that list. In California alone, there are roughly 14,000 beef cattle operations and 2,500 dairy farms. How many cattle are involved within those accumulated operations: 720,000 cows ready for slaughter, and 1.74 million dairy cows. Even more staggering is that, according to the California Beef Council, at any given time there can be approximately 5.4 million heads of cattle in the state. The industry brings in over a billion and a half dollars each year.
Standing along the side of the road, looking through my camera bag, the pressure of the landscape made all those figures perfectly clear. Parked, illegally, outside of Harris Ranch, I was at the epicenter of the world’s beef industry.
I walked towards a rise further up the road closer to the highway. At the top of the rise I was able to get a better look at the yards that held the cattle. I couldn’t see where the yards ended from where I was standing. As I attempted to take pictures of the area I couldn’t get any of it into perspective. Due to the immensity of the area everything seemed squashed and small. All the while, as I took photos of the area, I was sure that someone was going to pull up and stop me. Considering how much I like to eat meat, I never once in my life thought I would ever be suspected of being an eco-terrorist. Today, I couldn’t help thinking that anyone who saw me film all this would be suspicious.
I walked down the rise getting back towards the car. Before leaving I got right up next to the fence ringing the compound. There was a divide of about fifty feet between the fence, and the fence that held in the multitudes of cattle. I rested my camera on a fence post and zoomed in on the cattle in the yards. As the camera rolled I looked into the view finder and the cattle were staring back at me, looking straight into the lens; quizzical of who this thing/person was standing there, looking at them. I attempt to be as considerate as possible when it comes to where and who I buy my meat from. But certainly, from time to time, I’m sure I ate something that lived on this ranch for a little while. As I stood there, and the cows were staring down the lens of the camera, it was hard to think that this was living at all. For possibly the first time in my live I seriously considered giving up meat. Though, callous bastard that I am, that idea dissipated by the time I reached the car back across the road.
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