A better question might be "Where's the rainforest?" Because where Amazon rainforest once was, you'll now find cattle ranches. And the beef ends up in some interesting places, including many I would never have suspected:
A report today from Greenpeace details a three-year investigation into these cattle farms and the global trade in their products, many of which end up on sale in Britain and Europe. Meat from the cattle is canned, packaged and processed into convenience foods. Hides become leather for shoes and trainers. Fat stripped from the carcasses is rendered and used to make toothpaste, face creams and soap. Gelatin squeezed from bones, intestines and ligaments thickens yoghurt and makes chewy sweets.
Many of the cattle ranches are violating laws that require them to retain 80% of the rainforest on their land. The area where this is occurring is quite unstable, like an Amazon wild wild West. Worse, check this out:
Cheap pasture from clearing and seeding rainforest is very attractive to farmers without easy access to the expensive agrichemicals and intensive land management techniques used in more developed countries. Within a few years, the planted pasture becomes overrun with native grass, unsuitable for cattle. Many farmers then take the cheap option and knock down adjoining forest to start again, leaving swaths of unproductive deforested land in their wake.
Most of the beef exports go to the Middle East, Russia, and Europe, so the odds are that we aren't eating this stuff here. Still, we have global markets so prices and production here in the U.S. often affect what happens abroad.
The article also mentions Amazon deforestation occurring to produce soy and biofuels. In the U.S. we've seen a recent debate about whether or not our EPA should factor in Amazon deforestation when assessing the carbon footprint of biofuels compared to oil. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on the May 7 edition of Agritalk that he doesn't believe a farmer in Brazil based his decisions on what farmers in Iowa do. But if we truly have a global market, then that is not the case. An Iowa farmer's actions (and U.S. demand or lack thereof for biofuels) will impact the price of crops and thus affect the Brazilian farmer's decisions. |
