Food Production and Deforestation

Rainforests provide homes for 50%-90% of all organisms and humans receive 25% of medicine extracts from rainforests. Trees improve our air quality by breathing in carbon dioxide and other pollutants and exhaling oxygen. Forests regulate the earth’s climate and prevent erosion, landslides, and give fertility to soil. Why are we cutting down trees if they benefit human life?

There are many reasons humans partake in deforestation - overpopulation, logging, and cattle grazing are three big incentives. These reasons all relate to our consumption. Logging industries cut 11 million acres per year for commercial and property industries uses. (http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/deforestation.htm) For example, McDonald’s needs 800 square miles of trees to make the amount of paper they need for a year, according to Peter Heller. Since we are talking about food this week in class, I will touch on the repercussions the food industry and consumption has on deforestation.

Many forests are cleared to make room for food production. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the methods used were ecologically friendly. Farmers resort to the slash and burn method because it is cheap, using ash as fertilizer until it runs out and then use infertile land for cattle grazing. Slash and burn is a terrible method for forest removal, creating no positive long-term outcomes. In class we talked about how in the United States many people want what is fast and convenient, so rather than packing a lunch, many people choose fast food during their lunch breaks. However, according to Heller, “as the burger giants of industrialized society are making high demands for more beef, more forests are being torn down.”

How can we change our unsustainable deforestation habits? According to Robert Cialdini (http://www.grist.org/article/2010-01-12-never-mind-what-people-believe-how-can-we-change-what-they-do), there are six methods of social psychology that can change attitudes and actions toward saving the environment. Four of his weapons of influence are pertinent to changing deforestation. The first is reciprocity- if people are educated on what trees give us and about the importance of their presence for our survival, people could be convinced to change their consumption. According to the social proof, people do what others do- so if you adjust your lifestyle to become more ecologically friendly, you might convince your neighbors, too. Authority- if people obey authority then law needs to be passed to protect more rainforests. Lastly, people desire what is perceived as scarce, so if the knowledge of our diminishing forests is spread, hopefully more would be encouraged to protect the forests.

Wendell Berry’s statement, “to be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd”, needs to be taken more seriously for people to understand their food went through a process to end up on their plate. We need to change the dialogue from determining what we are going to eat, into how we are going to eat and the relationship we choose have with our food.

Morgan Miller


Sources

Pollan, Michael. "Wendell Berry's Wisdom." The Nation. 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 25 May 2010. .

Roberts, David. "Never Mind What People Believe—how Can We Change What They Do? A Chat with Robert Cialdini | Grist." Grist | Environmental News, Commentary, Advice. 12 Jan. 2010. Web. 25 May 2010. .

Stock, Jocelyn. "Deforestation." University of Michigan. Web. 25 May 2010. .