Feeling Sad About the Amazon Fires? Go Vegan
Cattle ranching occupies 80 percent of all converted lands in the Amazon rainforest. But it doesn’t end there. Soy is the most important protein in animal feed, with 80 percent of the world’s soybean crop fed to livestock.
EDOARDO LIOTTA: ‘The struggle with “Climate Despair” is real. That is anxiety and depression caused by news of environmental degradation. Right now, for example, many have shared feelings of helplessness amid the ongoing forest fires in the Amazon… The problem, however, is not totally out of people’s hands… The most practical solution people can adopt to help is to reduce–or stop–their meat intake…
Studies have shown that the fires aren’t caused by natural occurrences, but by humans–our love for meat, to be exact. The fires are caused by burning fallen trees to make way for cattle ranching, a growing industry in Brazil and the wider region…
Although logging (both legal and illegal) and other activities also drive deforestation in the Amazon, animal agriculture is the leading cause by far. The World Bank reported that cattle ranching occupies 80 percent of all converted lands in the Amazon rainforest…
But it doesn’t end there. The animals on these farms need to eat, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) also links the rainforest fires to the production of cattle food through soy farming. Soy is the most important protein in animal feed, with 80 percent of the world’s soybean crop fed to livestock. So while soy may not destroy as much forest as cattle ranching, it is part of the underlying cause by enabling grazing…
All this is done to keep up with the growing demand for meat globally, which is caused by population growth and increased affluence in developing countries. This keeps animal farms and soybean plantations locked in a vicious cycle where they depend on each other to grow.
“The livestock and agriculture sectors do not exist in isolation from each other. Rather, they are linked in two primary ways: they act as mutual enablers to access land within the Amazon, and they support each other through integrated value chains,” the WWF said’. SOURCE…
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