Is Your Diet Destroying A Rainforest?

Everything we do has an impact on our world and the progression of global warming. Some of it is quite direct, like whether we recycle, what kind of car we drive and whether we consume a diet that is plant based and locally grown or meat based and transported thousands of miles to reach us. But most of us have not yet started to think about whether our diet is encouraging rain forest destruction or are even fully aware why this is an important consideration.

For starters, the world’s rainforests function pretty much as the Earth’s lungs, only in reverse. They take in vast quantities of carbon dioxide (a poisonous gas largely responsible for global warming) and through photosynthesis, convert it into clean, breathable air. Scientists estimate that 10,000 years ago, the Earth was covered with 6 billion acres of tropical rainforests. By 1950, we had destroyed more than half of that birthright while human and mammal population and pollution exploded. In the 50’s, rainforest was being cleared at a rate of about 10 to 15 million acres per year.

Today we have less than 1.5 billion acres left, and the remaining rainforest is being destroyed at an estimated rate of 50 million acres per year. At the present rate of tropical deforestation, there will be no tropical rainforest left in just 30 years. However, since the rate of deforestation is actually increasing every year, that estimate may be frighteningly optimistic. In case you hadn’t considered it before, it’s pretty hard to survive on a planet without a breathable atmosphere. We are very near to causing our own extinction as we continue to be driven by motives of profit, greed and short sighted economic policy.

So, what can you do? Surprisingly, seven very common foods are a big part of the increased rate of destruction of this crucial resource. By boycotting these crops or products and demanding alternatives as a consumer, we can put some reins on the process of rainforest destruction. Products being grown or raised on clear cut rainforest include: beef, shrimp, rice, palm oil, soy, corn, and sugar cane. Rainforest is also being cleared for its timber, to exploit mineral resources and to make room for a rapidly expanding population, but the majority of the land is being used to produce these most lucrative products.

One of the biggest problems is that once cleared, the land is used to produce just one crop (mono culture) which depletes the soil of nutrients in just 1-3  years. Farmers are unable to afford expensive petroleum based fertilizers and are not educated to replenish their soil through compost and by planting diverse crops. It becomes cheaper for them to clear cut new land then to replenish the soil or plant other crops that aren’t as lucrative. This is a problem that could be easily solved by raising the cost of virgin rainforest or the governments helping to facilitate a transition to organic farming methods. Unfortunately, no one is interested – yet.

art by John Dyer

This strategy of using up resources and moving on is unfortunately the mentality that has brought us to the crisis we currently face. A few farmers have been using more intercropping and forest cover to grow shade-grown coffee, which helps to prevent deforestation and preserves biodiversity, but this strategy has not been adapted to these other crops. This change in coffee production occurred because activist campaigns in recent years were able to educate consumers who in turn, forced companies to produce more ‘sustainable’ products. We could do the same for these agricultural products by boycotting any coming from clear cut rainforest. Consider the following:

Beef

Beef is by far the largest contributor to deforestation, because forest is cleared for both the cattle and for their feed – soy and corn. In Brazil, the cattle industry has been growing at the rate of  3 million head per year since 1974. Much of the deforestation in the Amazon is being conducted illegally and despite efforts to contain it, the Amazon is actually losing forest cover faster than ever, largely due to the rising demand for beef.

Palm oil

Palm oil is one of the cheapest and therefore most ubiquitous oils used in everything from cake to bread to baby food and soap. It’s often only listed on labels as ‘vegetable oil’, so also avoid products that have that on their labels. Palm oil production is a major force in deforestation—destroying, old-growth trees which are crucial habitat for the endangered orangutan and Sumatran tiger. It is also one of the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gases. Palm oil plantations has made Indonesia the third-largest contributor to climate change.

Soy

Soy is used mainly as feed for chickens, cows, and pigs everywhere. Over 11 million hectares of South America have been deforested to produce that one crop to provide cattle feed to Europe and America. Much of this crop is genetically modified. By choosing organic soy products, you can be assured your soy is not rain forest produced.

Rice

When you think of Asia, you don’t think of forest, but of rice paddies, but most of those paddies were originally rain forest. Additionally, these fields are also the largest source of methane produced from human activity. Amazingly, rice fields emit between 50 and 100 million tons of methane per year, (think global warming) though that amount could be reduced with changes in farming methods. Buying CA grown organic rice, you can avoid rain forest destruction.

Shrimp

Commercial shrimp farms abound in coastal regions from southeast Asia to Africa, destroying an estimated 38 % of the world’s mangrove forests. These forests protect coastal regions from erosion and storm damage and serve as a natural space for spawning and hatching of various fish. Natural fish stocks are depleted in order to produce an inferior commercial product.

Corn

The U.S. subsidizes the ethanol industry which has driven the price of corn sky high. In the Amazon this financial incentive is driving deforestation at a fevered pace. The fact that any possible environmental benefit from using biofuel instead of fossil fuel is offset by the destruction of rainforest to produce it, doesn’t seem to be being considered in US policy.

Sugarcane

Like corn, sugarcane has expanded rapidly in the last few years to produce ethanol. Brazil has gained a reputation as the first sustainable biofuel economy yet the world’s largest rainforest is being systematically destroyed to produce it. The burning of the forests alone add more CO2 to the atmosphere than using ethanol is able to save. Another  example of short sighted thinking.

It all comes down to the choices we make. We can make a difference and becoming aware of the impact of our choices is a first step. Pass this information on, and hopefully we’ll all breath a bit easier in the next 30 years.

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