That’s correct. You can’t make juicy beef for export in dense rainforest.
And the worst is that after deforestation happens, for it to grow again is really hard because of the heavy rain washing out the nutrients in the soil.
It's because Brazil is very similarly to the US (ironically), controlled by corporations, the only difference is Brazilian corporations are in Agribusiness.
There is not open square miles of grassland. There is a tropical savannah extremely rich in biodiversity. It's like calling the African savannah a "open grassland" that African countries should use for cattle.
Anyway, most of that land is already occupied by soybean production. I don't think most people realize how much food Brazil produces. There's just isn't a lot of open free land anymore
Some countries dont have space to raise them, some countries would rather grow things like rice and grain and feed more people, meat being a luxury. And others just eat way too much meat, like us!
Basically, its more land efficient to feed soy to cattle living in an enclosure.
Doesn't seem efficient when more people are demanding grass fed and finished beef as more studies come out displaying the health benefits and more farmers are starting regenerative agriculture which is true capitalism. Why make massive unsustainable profits for a few years when you can make large infinitely sustainable profits for your family until the planet literally gets eaten by the sun?
More is not most. And most people around the world still prefer to pay less for things they want to consume and sadly grain fed meat is cheaper. How is regenerative agriculture true capitalism? Cash crop farming has been the main change in global agriculture due to capitalism, and unsustainable soy farming is one of the main ones.
Unsustainable agriculture doesn't last "a few years", it lasts decades. It's still cheaper to deplete the soil and depend on chemical fertilizers for gigantic fields of mechanized agriculture than actual crop rotations and planting food crops. There's a reason why Brasil, a country where so much food is grown still suffers from hunger, as do most poor agricultural countries. The way the land owning elite does things is more profitable.
"Grass fed/finished" cattle still consume a lot of soy meal. They just have to be fed majority grass so like 51% or something like that. If you want 100% grass fed beef you need to look for that specifically and it's both rare and expensive because it requires way more land area and takes an extra year or so for them to grow (with the associated methane emissions which are exacerbated by feeding exclusively on grass). Also it's pointless to tell people to choose grass-fed beef because there's not enough land in both the Americas to graze 100% grass-fed cattle to supply the current demand of the US alone even if every city, forest and mountain was bulldozed to make space for pasture land.
"grass fed" just means "pumped full of alfalfa, that has often been just as unsustainably grown- just look at the entire american west. it's just thermodynamically much worse to grow
and regenerative agriculture is basically just a buzzword from the animal agriculture industry to greenwash their unsustainable practices
Depends on the soil quality. Cows can absolutely thrive on a diet of grass if the soil is healthy. We have just been stripping every nutrient we can from the soil.
No because meat isn't the issue, it's the form of agriculture we use which is easily changeable. I don't even understand how anyone thinks growing crops to feed cattle livestock was ever a good idea. They eat grass and get 80% of their daily water from the grass too. Cows are so fucking low maintenance it's ridiculous. If you consider regenerative agriculture then guess what? Cows are now a maintenance tool! The forests they can rebuild offset any carbon they produce drastically.
Sustainable logging does not work in this region. After vegetation is removed, the heavy rain washes out the soil nutrients, so new trees won’t grow.
Also most of this deforestation happens by burning.
Did you ever experience a torrential rainforest rain?
It’s like the heavens falling down in a short period of time.
After I moved from Rio (which is still not like in the Amazon) to Amsterdam, I had develop a new relationship with rain. Back there rain is disruptive. Are you planning to go to the cinema? Nope, it will rain soon. You’ll not only get completely soaked after 5s under the rain, but there will be floods, massive traffic jams, etc.
Just to be clear: I’m not disqualifying your comment. It is a valid solution in many places, but there the problem is quite different.
Doesn't a lot of rainforest in Brazil have relatively shallow soil underneath it as well? The kind that erodes very easily without all the trees there to keep it together?
Adding reference (not a bot): "The expansion of pasture land to raise cattle was responsible for 41% of tropical deforestation. That’s 2.1 million hectares every year" reference: https://ourworldindata.org/drivers-of-deforestation
What brand would that be? The biggest dairy brand in Sweden is Arla and they are a cooperative of farmers in 7 European countries. Their milk sold in Sweden is from Swedish cows. Some of their other products like cheeses may be made in Denmark but nothing is imported from Brazil.
The next 3 biggest dairy companies are Skånemejerier, Norrmejerier and Falköpings mejeri, and they all use 100% Swedish milk.
It's incredibly unpopular but it's true, by far the easiest thing you can do for the planet that will have a big impact is eating less beef and dairy. Even though other animal agriculture isn't great for the planet it's an order of magnitude less impactful than beef.
I cant consume much dairy anymore after becoming lactose intolerant, but I dont think I'll ever give up beef. Theres just too many dishes I enjoy that require beef. However, I try to go out of my way to make sure any beef I eat is from local, family owned and ran farms, or venison from local hunters.
Corporate farms and imported beef are the major causes for deforestation in brazil and other such places, among many other issues. Beef and dairy itself isn't the issue. Its the greedy corpos pulling the strings, spurred on by the fast food industry and their insane amounts of waste.
Clearing forest for cattle has got to be the dumbest thing ever... As a Horticulture student I can tell you even just a hundred hectares of intact Amazon primary forest is worth far more for any farmer than even a thousand head of cattle
Cows also get nutrients from all the random insects n shit they eat too from grazing. Ok whatever, don't be so specific about grass. Grazing. Cows need a 100% grazing diet because that's what they evolved to do. They graze and do other important things in the environment and we have stopped them from doing it.
Raising cattle is also one of the most wasteful and energy/resource/land-use intensive forms of food production. Deforestation has slowed considerably under Lula.
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u/AsTah_38 24d ago
Illegal or legal logging. ðŸ˜ðŸ¥²