The Food Industry and Deforestation, Loss of Biodiversity

DEFORESTATION AND THE LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY

View Video:

"Just one hog farm in Utah, for

example, produces more sewage

than the city of Los Angeles. These

megafarms

are proliferating, and in

populous areas their waste is

tainting drinking water. In more

pristine

regions, from

Indonesia to

the Amazon, tropical rain forest is

being burned down to make room

for more and

more cattle.

Agriculture is the world's biggest

cause of deforestation, and

increasing demand for meat is the

biggest force in the

expansion of

agriculture."

"...hugely inefficient use of

freshwater and land, heavy

pollution from livestock feces, rising

rates of heart

disease

and other

degenerative illnesses, and

spreading destruction of the

forests on which much of our

planet's life

depends."

“Much as we have awakened to the full economic and social costs of cigarettes, we will find we can no longer

subsidize or ignore the

costs of mass-producing cattle, poultry, pigs, sheep and fish to feed our growing

population.

These costs include hugely inefficient use

of freshwater and land, heavy pollution from livestock

feces, rising rates

of heart disease and other degenerative illnesses, and

spreading destruction of the forests

on which much of our

planet’s life depends.”

Time.com. "Will We Still Eat Meat?"

"As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America

where some 70 per cent

of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing."

UN report.

According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institute, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed

every

minute, much of it to

create more room for farmed animals.