Two mornings ago, I moved the bison into one of our grassiest pastures.

This pasture has been rested since the winter, and the grass is just incredible in there right now.

I stuck around and watched the bison graze and took some photos.

(Watching — and listening — to our bison graze fresh grass is one of my favorite things to do in the world.)

And while I was watching and listening to them, I couldn’t help but be amazed.

Again.

This whole process is just so simple. Grass comes from sunlight, rain, and soil. And bison have these magical stomachs that allow them to thrive off grass.

(And — just so we’re all on the same page — the same magic is taking place on our neighbors’ ranches with cattle right now — ruminants with magical stomachs thriving on grass.)

It’s a process that’s evolved over thousands of years — yet again, it’s so simple.

And then I thought about the excellent, straightforward article our good friend Anna Borgman wrote the other day about fake meat.

Watching a ruminant graze is magic.

Watching a lifeless monoculture corn or soybean field (that used to be a biodiverse prairie) get manufactured into a Plant-Based Pollinator-Killing Chemical Burger is something else entirely.

And I guess what frustrates me most these days is the wildly misleading marketing from the fake meat corporations (and certain environmental groups that should know better) — and the reality that your average person that doesn’t geek out on this stuff walks into a Whole Foods, decides they want to do the right thing for the planet, and they go buy a package of processed vegan burgers — thinking they’re doing the right thing — when they should simply be buying the real thing from a farmer or rancher.

I don’t know how we got here — it seems absolutely crazy at times.

But watching our bison graze that gorgeous grass Tuesday morning — that gives me hope.

They’re animals.

We’re animals.

The planet is hurting.

And turning towards nature — not away from it — is the only legitimate path forward.

Follow the ruminants. And their magical stomachs. And the magical grass.

It will give you hope.