The food that we eat has a significant, but often hidden,
environmental footprint. Producing it requires evergrowing quantities of land, water, energy and chemicalinputs – which has serious consequences for the
environment.
Meat and dairy production has a particularly large
impact. Intensive farming methods in Europe, which rely
on high-protein animal feeds, have created a global food
chain in which UK poultry, pigs and cattle depend on feed
crops from the other side of the world. Soy, grown and imported from Latin America, has become the main source of protein in animal feed. It has created a soy boom where vast swathes of land in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina have been converted for largescale production –causing deforestation, greenhousegas emissions and the loss of valuable wildlife habitat.
The livestock sector is responsible for an estimated
18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions,1 and
deforestation is a significant source. Reducing the impact of the livestock sector is critical if we are to prevent dangerous climate change.
Soy farming has devastating local impacts,contaminating soil and water with pesticides and other inputs. It has also been linked to human rights abuses, forced evictions and intimidation of local communities. Small-scale farmers are pushed out by the vast soy monocultures and struggle to survive in the global agroindustry.
Many are forced to sell up and leave the land.
Crops for human consumption are being replaced
by soy plantations for animal feed and biofuels. This
pressure on food supplies has added to the recent
volatility in global food prices, exacerbating global hunger and poverty.
Read more on the national FoE website.
