The Drift (Blog 12)

 In class, we were discussing the drift, which is a century-old tradition where cattle are moved from the ranches down south to the mountains up north in the summer. The goal for this is to let the cattle graze in the mountains in order to let hay be produced in the southern ranches for the winter. This has been a continuous yearly movement since the 1890s and is still commonly practiced today in the US. The practice of the drift is a perfect example of a counterargument to Garret Hardin's theory on the tragedy of the commons.  It shows that rather than overconsume the land around them (commons), they all commonly unite to move their cattle up north in the season to protect the commons around them.

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