Cheney rancher appears in New York Times photo essay

Beth Robinette, a fourth-generation owner and operator of Lazy R Ranch in Cheney, is quoted in a recent New York Times photo essay.

The project, posted Jan. 11, was written by Amy Chozick and photographed by Amanda Lucier. It’s titled: “Female Ranchers Are Reclaiming the American West.”

The subheadline reads: “As men leave animal agriculture for less gritty work, more ranches are being led by women — with new ideas about technology, ecology and the land.”

Robinette, co-founder of Local Inland Northwest Cooperative – or LINC – Foods, runs a five-day New Cowgirl Camp which trains women in ranch management. She’s described in the NYT piece this way: “Ms. Robinette recoils at the gaudy, country-pop version of the overly feminized cowgirl, and calls her program a ‘rhinestone-free zone.’”

She’s also quoted in the project. “Our current generation of land managers is aging out of that role,” she told the New York Times. “You could look at that as a disaster, or you could really look at that as an opportunity to change the paradigm.”

To see the project, visit www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/business/women-ranchers-american-west-photo-essay.html.