Foods Effect On Deforestation
As we have all learned, food consumption is one
of the number one contributers to environmental damage. I have written numerous
blogs and read various articles on the packaging, processing, and
transportation of food, but what about the land itself. We have touched on the
negative effects of over consumption of meat in our country, but I want to
focus on a different aspect of it. In order to have a cattle (or any meat)
farm, you must have land. Therefore, the more meat consumed, the more land is
needed, which is leading to deforestation. Clearing land for agriculture is a
major cause of wilderness loss and habitat destruction in the United States. Also,
in the tropical areas of Asia and South and Central America, the clearing and
burning of rainforests is caused mainly by cattle production. It has been
estimated that “about 260 million acres of forests in the U.S. have been
cleared to create cropland for cattle, and many millions more have been
cleared, and are cleared every day, in forests around the world.”
This topic interested me because just yesterday
in class we watched a documentary on deforestation and the terrible long
lasting damage it can cause a country. One of the many issues of deforestation
is the amount of carbon in the air. Trees serve as carbon sinks and absorb the
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So, if we are removing mass amounts of
trees, it will leave more carbon in the air, causing and expediting global
warming. It’s said that “the carbon footprint created by four years of
deforestation is equal to the carbon footprint of every single air flight in
the history of aviation up to the year of 2025.” That is a lot of carbon in
just four short years.
So, essentially the production of meat is causing
deforestation , which is causing global warming. I know that this has been said
before, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to reduce the amount of
meat you consume. It can help our environment enormously in so many different
ways!
nice post .. deforestation is a huge issue world wide less trees less air less green .. YUCK
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