Deforestation in Brazil Increases to Clear Land for Soybean Farming

Information by Farmed Animal Watch: n.20, v.5

In the year ending August 2004, more than 10,000 square miles of Brazil's rainforest was cleared for farming, up 6% from the year before, according to the country's Environment Ministry.

Most of the deforestation is attributable to soybean farming that is used primarily to feed farmed animals.

The news comes as a surprise to environmentalists and the Brazilian government, which spent US$140 million last year on a plan to curb the loss of rainforest.

Brazil's land area is about 60% covered by rainforest, but up to 20% of the forest has been destroyed.

Much of soybean farming is used to support Brazil's growing agribusiness industry, in particular exports of pig and chicken flesh. Brazil is quickly becoming a global leader in farming and is listed by the US Department of Agriculture as an emerging threat to US agricultural dominance (along with Argentina, Canada, and the Ukraine).

In an apparent conflict of interest, nearly half of the deforestation in Brazil last year occurred in one region governed by one of the world's largest soybean farmers. The increase in soybean farming is also having other deleterious effects on Brazil's natural environment, including the clearing and paving of roads and pollution from the process of deforestation itself.

Source: Farmed Animal Net
Author: Farmed Animal Net

Link: Amazon Deforestation Up 6 Percent in 2004
Link: Appetite for Amazon destruction
Link: Globalization: It's a Small World After All
Link: Greenpeace: Brazil Rainforest Destruction 'a National Shame
Link: Our future depends on reducing stresses we put on earth's ecosystems


Other EVANA-articles about this topic:
Quand l'élevage empiète sur les forêts (fr)

Amazon rainforest destruction spinning out of control (en)

Brasilien: Riesige Waldflaechen im Amazonas vernichtet (de)

Le Brésil a perdu 26.130 km2 de sa forêt amazonienne en un an - (fr)

Schockierende Tatsachen zur Rinderzucht: (de)

Schockierendes Kahlschlag-Tempo im Amazonas (de)

Rainforest disappearing at record speed (en)