Urban dwellers’ meat consumption among the factors of increasing deforestation. - 18 Feb 2010  
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In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, US-based lead author Dr. Ruth DeFries discovered that along with an increased move to cities has been a rise in the clearing of forests.

This observation reverses previously held beliefs that fast-growing urbanization and technological efficiencies might slow or even reverse such deforestation.

Moreover, the research found that the trees’ decline is due in part to the tendency of city-dwellers to eat more animal products and processed foods.

Dr. DeFries stated, “One line of thinking was that concentrating people in cities would leave a lot more room for nature. But those people in cities and the rest of the world need to be fed.

That creates a demand for industrial-scale clearing.” Some of the nations most affected by the immense land clearing needed for livestock and related products include Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Related research has found that in Brazil alone, more than 80% of the deforested regions are occupied by cattle or crops grown for animal feed.

Our sincere appreciation, Dr. DeFries and colleagues, for your work in documenting further the immense eco-damage created by meat consumption.

May such findings hasten our actions toward life-giving plant-based fare to save our Earth.
Highlighting as on previous occasions the preciousness of our planet’s biodiversity, Supreme Master Ching Hai addressed once more the need to halt the destructive tolls of the livestock industry during an October 2009 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan).

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Right now, one-third of the entire Earth’s land surface is used either for grazing animals or growing feed for the animals, not for humans. We humans use very little of this agriculture section.

This is a devastating way to make a cheap profit at the cost of our planet’s and our people’s survival. We are eating our planet by consuming meat. So, without the needless animal industry, not only will we gain forests, we can also have organic vegan farmlands to grow real, decent food for humans, and like the forests, these farmlands can also absorb a lot of heat, a lot of heat from the atmosphere.

And a global shift to organic vegan practices could mean 40% of all greenhouse gases absorbed as well, apart from the 50 plus percent that we eliminate through the terminating of the animals raising practice.  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/11/cities-farming-deforestation
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2470
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/forests/how-cattle-ranching-chewing-amazon-rainforest-20090129
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo756.html