800 Million Amazon Trees Cut Down Due to Global Beef Demand

What's the story?

• Over 800 million trees in the Amazon rainforest were cut down in just six years to satisfy global demand for Brazilian beef, a Guardian investigation found. 
• Despite the Brazilian beef industry pledging to avoid farms linked to deforestation, data indicates that approximately 4.2 million acres of Amazon rainforest were destroyed near global meat plants.

The beef industry's impact

• Brazil is now the top global beef exporter, but rising demand for affordable meat has been linked to significant deforestation in the past five years.
• Cattle ranching accounts for 80% of current deforestation throughout the Amazon.

What is being done?

• In April, the European Parliament approved a regulation that prohibits products associated with deforestation. Therefore, some Brazilian meat shipped to the EU could breach laws designed to combat deforestation in supply chains. 
• European Parliament member Delara Burkhardt said:

"The destruction of the Amazon is not only a Brazilian affair. It is also an affair of other parts of the world, like the EU, the UK, or China that import Amazon deforestation. That is why the consumer countries should enact supply chain laws to make sure that the meat they import is produced without inducing deforestation. I hope that the new EU law against imported deforestation will be a blueprint for other major importers like China to follow."

• Experts suggest that the most effective way to halt deforestation is by encouraging consumers to choose sustainably produced meat from non-rainforest cleared areas.
• Following the #StopFeedingDeforestation 2021 campaign by Mighty Earth, major supermarket chains like Tesco in Britain and Carrefour in France committed to removing meat made with "deforestation" soy from their stores. Europe's largest poultry producer, Group LDC, also announced its decision to cease purchasing soy from producers involved in native ecosystem destruction or encroachment on Indigenous lands.

What do you think? Should we ban food imports associated with deforestation?

-Laura Woods

(Photo credit: iStock/luoman)