Food For Thought
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Countless acres of rainforest have been destroyed to create land for cattle grazing. |
Countless acres of rainforest have been destroyed to create land for cattle grazing.
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Consider This
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Threatened and endangered species imperiled by livestock grazing: 161
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Cattle grazing is a serious threat to endangered species, both in the western United States and in the rainforests of South America.
In the United States, grazing has contributed to the demise of 26% of federal threatened and endangered species.[1]
In The Western Range Revisited, a 1999 book published by the University of Oklahoma, author Debra L. Donahue writes, “Grazing’s ecological impacts are more widespread than those of any other human activity in the West, and elimination of grazing holds greater potential for benefiting biodiversity than any other single land use measure.”
The situation is no better in South America where the rainforests are being destroyed at an alarming rate in order to clear the land for cattle grazing.
According to the United Nations, ranching-induced deforestation is one of the main reasons for the loss of plant and animal species in tropical rainforests.[2]
It is estimated that for each hamburger made from rainforest beef, members of life forms from approximately 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammals, and reptile species are destroyed.[3]
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