Reply #25: I don't think that is feasible at the current rate of consumption. [View All]

[cui bono]

I still believe the only real solution is to cut back on consumption. It's politically and physically healthy. I don't understand why so many people are so averse to this solution.

Don't forget, a lot of rain forest has been devastated in order to clear land for raising cattle. That is horrendous.

DEFORESTATION IN BRAZIL: 60-70 percent of deforestation in the Amazon results from cattle ranches while the rest mostly results from small-scale subsistence agriculture. Despite the widespread press attention, large-scale farming (i.e. soybeans) currently contributes relatively little to total deforestation in the Amazon. Most soybean cultivation takes place outside the rainforest in the neighboring cerrado grassland ecosystem and in areas that have already been cleared. Logging results in forest degradation but rarely direct deforestation. However, studies have showed a close correlation between logging and future clearing for settlement and farming.
http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

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Rainforest Cattle Grazing

Cattle have been the main reason for the destruction of the rainforests in Central and South America. In Brazil, for example, ranchers have been encouraged by the government to take over large areas of forest. The most effective way of clearing the forest is to burn it, and this is what has happened to huge areas of the Amazonian rainforest.

Once the forest has been cleared, cattle pasture is created. Most of the beef raised on this pasture is destined for the fast-food market in North America and Europe. After only five or six years most of the ranches have to be abandoned, because the soil is no longer fertile. Even after just three or four years the thin topsoil, with no trees to protect it, may have been washed away by rain. Eventually, these huge cleared areas become a desert, with little hope of ever recovering.
http://www.ypte.org.uk/docs/factsheets/env_facts/rainffcatt.html