Munching away at the rainforests
THIS month, animal campaigning group Viva! is holding its annual Veggie Month. We are highlighting the toll that eating meat and dairy has not only on farmed animals, but also animals in the wild.
You might ask: what has eating a beefburger got to do with killing monkeys? The answer is lots! The meat and dairy industries are the number-one cause of loss of biodiversity around the world. They top the list in making wildlife and plants extinct.
Eating a burger doesn't just cost the life of the cow, but the lives of innumerable wild animals by destroying natural habitat through ranching and clearing land to grow crops to feed farmed animals.
Europe imports 18 million tons of soya every year from cleared land in the Amazon, almost all of it used to feed animals. Our meat- and dairy-rich Western diets mean that we are literally munching our way through the rainforest.
The reality is that by going veggie, the average Brit not only saves the lives of 11,047 animals in a lifetime (simply by not eating them), but also a whole jungle's worth of wild animals, too!
Justin Kerswell Viva! Bristol
3 Comments
by K Brown, Bristol, England
Wednesday, September 17 2008, 12:43PM
“Hmm, I always buy locally sourced meat. The farmland is already in existence so no change there. The fact of the matter is that I enjoy eating meat, and as has been said before, I suffer from a digestive problem that means I cannot gain the nutrients I need from a vegetable only diet.
Incidentally, have you any idea how much undigested vegetable matter is excreted every day? Hardly an efficient way of nourishment”
by Justin Kerswell, Bristol
Tuesday, September 16 2008, 3:19PM
“Yes, veggies and vegans eat soya, but the vast majority of it is used to feed farmed animals. If we stopped eating animals we would have more than enough land to grow crops (including soya) to feed ourselves without further encroachment on the rainforest. In fact, we would be able to revert much of the land back to its natural habitat. Meat-eaters are responsible for the consumption of far more soya than vegetarians, as they are, in essence, responsible for the environmental destruction caused by growing crops to feed those animals.”
by b, swindon
Tuesday, September 16 2008, 1:43PM
“Justin veggies eat DAIRY PRODUCTS and veggies and vegans have SOYA as a staple part of their meat free diet. So how many animals are not saved by going veggie?”