We started with $500, a little barn in Sparta, North Carolina, and absolutely no idea what we were doing. Eight years later, the best part of the Southeast Highland Cattle Show & Sale has very little to do with the cattle and everything to do with the people who helped build it.

Technology has given small farms like mine new ways to survive, but it also requires land, power and infrastructure. As development reaches farther into rural America, how do we make room for progress without losing the farmland we still need?

President Trump’s new cattle executive orders address issues farmers and ranchers have been fighting over for years, including country-of-origin labeling, meatpacking competition, processing access and livestock predators. There is a lot here worth supporting, but before we celebrate, I think it’s worth separating what was actually changed from what has only been promised.

Mountain land has always been valuable to somebody. After watching how quickly Western North Carolina has changed, I’ve started thinking differently about what it means to own a piece of it, what we trade away for money, and what we have a responsibility to leave behind.

When I was about 12, someone gave my dad a herd of bison. We had no proper fencing, no handling facilities, and very little idea what we were doing, but that didn’t stop us from trying. Years later, seeing bison in Custer brought back one of the wildest memories from my childhood.