Congratulations to Greenpeace, their report, Slaughtering the Amazon, which highlights the fact that cattle ranching is the major cause of deforestation in the Amazon, has prompted Brazil’s top three retail groups to ban the purchase of beef originating in deforested areas of the Amazon.

Greenpeace: Destruction of the Amazon, the world’s most important forest carbon store, is being driven by the cattle sector. The Brazilian Amazon has the greatest annual average deforestation by area of anywhere in the world. The cattle sector is the key driver of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. According to the Brazilian government: ‘Cattle are responsible for about 80% of all deforestation’ in the Amazon region. In recent years, on average one hectare of Amazon rainforest has been lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds.

In reaction to this, retailers CBD, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have pledged to ban beef purchased from farms accused of deforestation. Of course, while there is still demand for beef, and as consumption grows, the farmers will have to increase their land area and this will no doubt impact the Amazon.

Also this week, a study published in Science confirmed what we all know already; that slashing and burning the forest to produce soy and cattle doesn’t help anyone but big business. The Guardian reports that “Chopping down the Amazon rainforest to make way for crops or cattle has no economic or social benefit for local people in the long term. Conservationists showed communities develop rapidly but temporarily when forests are cleared. But rates of development quickly fall back below national average levels when the loggers move on and local resources near depletion.”
Read the article here.

“Right now, huge swathes of rainforest are being cut down to feed the global appetite for beef and leather”, so say Greenpeace, following te release of their new report Amazon Cattle Footprint.

The report confirms what we have known for some time; that cattle ranching is the main cause of Amazon destruction. Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter with a market share of 30%. The Brazilian government has plans to increase their share to 60% in the next decade which can only result in further deforestation.

As the forest is destroyed huge amounts of carbon dioxide are released, which contributes to climate change (deforestation of tropical forests is responsible for approximately 20% of the global emissions
of greenhouse gases); many of the tens of thousands of species of plant, mammals, fish and birds come under severe threat of extinction and indigenous people lose their homes. In addition to this, cattle ranching itself results in further greenhouse gas emissions (methane from the cows) and subjects many workers to slavery (cattle ranching is responsible for the highest rates of slave labour in Brazil).

Whilst Greenpeace target industry and governments to take strong action to halt deforestation, we all, as individuals can take action too. The global meat industry exists because consumers create the demand. If you stop buying meat, there is no reason for the Brazilian government to clear any more forests to produce it.

Find out more about food choices that are sustainable, equitable and environmentally responsible.

Ugandan livestock farmers, concentrated along ‘the cattle corridor’ which runs southwest to northeast across Uganda, are already in conflict due to water scarcity and this will be exacerbated by increased demand and climate change. Oxfam’s recent report ‘Climate Change and Poverty in Uganda’ reveals that:-

“People in Uganda, whose contribution to global warming has been minuscule, are feeling the impacts of climate change first and worst. On the one hand there is more erratic rainfall in the March to June rainy season, bringing drought and reductions in crop yields and plant varieties; on the other hand, the rainfall, especially in the later rains towards the end of the year, is reported as coming in downpours that are more intense and destructive, bringing floods, landslides, and soil erosion”.

Livestock farmers are already being forced to move their animals great distances to find pasture and water, increasing the conflict between them as they encroach on to each others territories.

Renowned British environmentalist Norman Myers coined the phrase ‘the hamburger connection’ in the 1980s to describe how the rapid growth in beef exports in Central America to fast food chains is the US was driving deforestation. Since then we have seen massive destruction of the Amazon for cattle ranching and now the largest meat producer in the world, Tyson, has ambitious plans to enter countries such as Brazil, China and India to introduce and profit from the industrialistion of meat production in those countries.

There is no question that Uganda needs to overcome poverty, but developing a meat export market is not the answer. We have already seen the result of meat exportation in Brazil and other developing countries which has only resulted in further environmental destruction, conflict, poverty and hunger. Forty per cent of children’s deaths in Uganda are caused by malnutrition; they need the resources to feed their own people, not to fulfil the desire for meat in rich nations. If Norway really wanted to make a difference to people in Uganda, and didn’t actually have an alterior motive, that’s what they’d help them to do.

Scientists at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen are concerned about climate change and acknowledge that “cattle and agriculture can be a very serious contributor towards the problem.”

They have been working to develop animal feed which will inhibit the the production of methane, which is 24 times more harmful than carbon dioxide, from the digestive systems of sheep and cows.

So far, they have found that adding fumaric acid (a natural chemical found in plants) to the feed significantly reduces the amount of methane that sheep produce. The fumaric acid traps hydrogen produced by their digestive systems and stops it being turned into methane. The same effect, however, hasn’t been found with cows.

So why is an institute which conducts research to find out ‘how nutriton can prevent disease’  promoting the consumption of red meat, considering the significant health impacts? Wouldn’t it be more consistent with their mission to encourage people to stop eating meat? It would certainly be a hugely better environmental solution.

It’s no surprise that the Rowett Research Institute was co-founded by the North of Scotland College of Agriculture (now the Scottish Agricultural College), whose current chairman was once on the board of Assured British Meat, the vice chairman is a partner and manager of a family beef and sheep farming business and the CEO has also worked in animal agriculture his entire life.

Fumaric acid and malic acid (which are closely related) are already being used in animal feeds. And guess what? Studies have shown that they increase growth rates in animals. In sheep, up to a 27% increase in weight gain was found in those fed feed with malic acid. Weight gain in broiler chickens has been proven to increase when fed fumaric acid. Even dairy cows produce more milk with a diet supplemented with malic acid.

Farmers have been criticised for using antibiotics for fattening their animals and with many governments now illegalising this practice, such as the EU ban in 2006, I am sure many farmers are delighted to have an excuse to add lots of this growth promoting chemical to their feeds.

Then there’s the animal welfare issue. Studies have shown that fumaric acid causes gastric ulcers in humans, as any cause of increase in acidity would. What research has there been about the health impacts of fumaric acid for animals?

In 2001 a report of a 12 year observational study named Typical Clinical Signs Associated with the Addition of Fumaric Acid to Milk Substitutes revealed that when fumaric acid is used in milk substitutes for calves and piglets this produces cardiac and kidney disfunctions and even death. The Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition produced a report in 2003 to counter this, named The Safety of Fumaric Acid.  Although they claimed that there was not sufficient evidence to prove that fumaric acid has caused these results, they admitted that higher than standard doses of fumaric acid are ‘probably nephrotoxic [poisons the liver] after long term use’ and that ‘tubular dysfunctions [ie in kidneys] in calves, even transient, can not be excluded’. They went on to say that they could not impose a limit for fumaric acid ‘due to the lack of knowledge in the absorption rate and in the nephrotoxic potential’.

Fumaric acid is used to treat human psoriasis and has also been proved to have a nephrotoxic affect.

Even if we could safely reduce the amounts of methane that cows and sheep produce, that’s one of many environmental impacts. What about the vast amounts of water used, pollution, disposing of manure, soil erosion, forest destruction? And let’s not forget all those food miles, shipping grain in from half way around the world while others starve. Meat is, and always will be environmentally damaging, unethical and totally inefficient.

” A cow is 90% inefficient. Ninety percent of what she eats goes right back out” said Bill Dunlap, who raises about a dozen beef cows a year in the US.

Let’s stop pandering to the meat industry and move to a plant based diet.

In a new report, the 20,000 beef and sheep farmers in Northern Ireland have been told to cut their losses and find other work.

Red meat from South America is tough competition for farmers in Northern Ireland who cannot produce meat as cheaply. The Read Meat Task Force are asking that supermarkets pay more for meat from Northern Ireland but this is unlikely as the price NI farmers need for the meat they produce way exceeds that of their competitors in South America.

Whilst higher profits are to be gained by supermarkets and the like, once again, the negative environmental and social impacts are being ignored.

Most of the meat comes from Brazil, where already 70% of previous forest land has been cleared to make way for grazing animals. An increase in demand for Brazilian meat can only mean more destruction of the forests, plus the obvious impact on climate change from transporting the meat to Europe.

Farmers in Northern Ireland cannot produce meat cheaply enough for the supermarkets and their customers but buying meat from South America is obviously not the answer. We all just need to go veg, that’s the only way to solve this problem!

Read BBC article