This article is about farming and ranching in Brazil. This is why you should care:
THE FACTS:
1. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef. Exported beef from Brazil has quadrupled over the last decade. Brazil is also giving the U.S. a run for it’s money as the world’s largest exporter of soy.
2. Destruction of the Amazonian rainforests for farming and ranching has been decreasing and reached a historic low last year. This is good news. It has been accomplished by researching and implementing some of the techniques discussed in the previous articles in this series such as enriching the soil and adding microbes to the roots of soy beans to help them fix nitrogen.
3. In order to accommodate future demand for beef without destroying additional rainforest, Brazil would have to double productivity on cattle pastures or squeeze the current cattle population onto half as much pasture between now and 2030.
OUR QUESTIONS:
1. How does the demand for beef play into this equation? Could we help here in the U.S. by eating less beef?
2. Intensive ranching (more cattle on less land) might reduce the need to clear rainforest or free up land for grain production, but what other effects would it have on the ecosystem? How would the higher concentration of waste be managed? How would the greater density of cows per unit of land affect their health?
There are no easy answers folks, but there are questions worth pondering when you are making choices about what to put in your shopping cart or on your plate.
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