As Americans, we are all too familiar with the world wide corporation of McDonalds. Tasty quarter pounders and the “Big Mac” are national favorites. But how much are these fast foods really costing us? After a yearlong investigation, the environmental group Greenpeace has filed a claim that McDonalds and other “western groups” are contributing to the wide-spread deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
How you ask? Greenpeace claims that the majority the soy-based animal feed used by fast-food corporations to fatten chickens and other animals is derived from soybeans grown in the Amazon rainforest. The land is cheap and the product is expensive. Its simple business as far as McDonalds is concerned. So what’s the issue? The problem is that as soon as the land is infertile, they must push back, thus cutting even further into the rainforest.
It’s not just for soy products, though. Cattle farming has also taken a major toll on the rainforest. Brazil has lost 38% of its rainforest to cattle ranching. Wow. That is nearly 1/3 of a rainforest we can never get back. So why the Amazon? Land in South America is cheap and nations and business are willing to sell it. This leaves room for mega corporations to swoop down and “get to business”.
They gain more land by using a technique called “slash and burn” agriculture. What happens is they cut down the trees and burn them. The nutrients from the forest then go into the soil. Unfortunately, this only works for two seasons at the most. Now what? We move back further and to a whole other area. As Stirling Cousins puts it, “On a very small scale this is sustainable. The forest regrows from the forest surrounding it. On a large scale, this type of forestry practice is devastating. Large tracts of land are burned and grasses are grown on what is now pasture. Then cattle graze on the land. After only a couple years the nutrients are so depleted and the soil is so compacted from grazing that the land is no longer valuable even for this very low end purpose.”
There are other dire effects from this practice besides straight up deforestation. Flooding of local villages is much more prevalent. This is because there are no plants in the area that are able to absorb the water. The soil has also has been completely packed down by the cattle making it harder for the ground to drink up the excess water. Also, the burning of the clear cut trees emits greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide. As we know, these gases are rumored causes of global warming and the greenhouse effect.
As for me, I didn’t support McDonalds or any large fast food corporation to begin with. One thing I cannot stomach in this world is deforestation. I refuse to give my money or support to a business that has no guilt or remorse for such a heinous crime. It is said that for every quarter pound hamburger, 55 square feet of the rainforest is destroyed. Obscene. But it gets even better! Not only do we lose precious trees, we lose biodiversity! 165 pounds of plant and animal species are massacred. This includes 20 to 30 species of plants, 100 species of insects, and dozens of species of other animals. This has to end, no question in my mind. Next time you opt for the “Big Mac”, just think first of what it could be costing the rest of the planet.
For more infromation, please take a peek at these sites:
http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0406-greenpeace.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/07/no_more_amazon.php
March 27, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I think it’s so terrible how they are cutting down all of the rainforests just so that we can have our McDonald’s burgers. In my opinion, the world was WAY better off without all the fast food. I mean, yeah, it’s a lot more convenient, and I would agree that we need it in some form, but I think that they should all be places like Subway — healthy alternatives to sit-down resteraunts. It would make the world a lot better place — A lot skinnier, healthier, anddd we can save the environment all in one.
April 1, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I, for one, don’t like McDonald’s at all. I would be fine if they stopped their business. There is no explination for what they are doing. There is no excuse the justifies cutting down millions of acres of the Amazon for grazing land. What they are destroying we can never get back. Every 10 yards or so there is said to be a new ecosystem in the Rainforest and we are getting rid of that for what, a hamburger that will kill us faster in the end.