Why Blaming Vegans for Rainforest Loss Is Absurd
Think soy milk hurts the rainforest? Think again!
Friends,
Anti-vegan disinformation is on the rise — sometimes caused by pure ignorance, but often actively pushed by the lying and corrupt animal agriculture industry.
It remains incredibly important to debunk these lies. Sometimes, a single sentence can suffice. Such as this statement I prepared for today’s post:
Animal farming is the leading source of deforestation worldwide — by far
Animals are an incredibly inefficient food source. Not only in terms of freshwater consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, soil degradation, water and air pollution, and the amount of human and animal suffering created, but also in terms of land use:
Animal agriculture occupies over one third of all habitable land on Earth (that’s 80% of all agricultural land use) — but contributes less than a fifth of global calorie supply.
Isn’t that insane?
As a result of its insatiable demand for land, animal agriculture is the single biggest cause of deforestation globally, dwarfing the destruction caused by other industries. Meat production alone drives deforestation five times more than any other sector.
Livestock farming is also responsible for 80% of deforestation throughout the Amazon rainforest. The industry has been identified as the “number one culprit of deforestation in virtually every Amazon country”.
→ Nothing could be more absurd than blaming vegans for rainforest destruction. The exact opposite is true.
For more information on the role of animal farming in rainforest destruction — and why this issue is incredibly important — check out my recent article on the topic. 👇
Although animal farming is the leading cause of destruction of forests, it is unacceptable that many in the vegan community wish to silence those of us who campaign against palm oil and other raw materials from lands in which the large-scale destruction of forests and other natural ecosystems, extermination of native plants, fungi and animals and genocide against indigenous peoples continue to take place or took place in the recent past. European countries should grow more of their food needs and mine more of their mineral needs within their own borders instead of causing destruction in South and North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, many of us campaign against products in packaging which does not get recycled, urban sprawl, human population growth and introduced, invasive species.