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Palm Oil Home Invasion In Everything From Snack Foods to Pet Foods
The link between livestock expansion and deforestation is not because the land that underlies tropical forests makes better pastures or produces higher crop yields. In fact, just the opposite is true. The soils of newly cleared tropical forest land are generally of poor quality, leading to low crop yields and sustaining few animals per hectare. But these lands are inexpensive or even free for the taking, usually increasing considerably in value once they are cleared. Palm oil expansion has replaced cattle ranching as the leading cause of tropical and neotropical deforestation, and palm kernel meal cakes are used as animal feed though inferior in nutrients. So it is that, at the regional level of the landscape mosaic, algorithms of averages rule in favor of sustainable production and sustainable markets. It's the economics of deforestation commodities. A year of meat consumption consumes how many trees?
The link between livestock expansion and deforestation is not because the land that underlies tropical forests makes better pastures or produces higher crop yields. In fact, just the opposite is true. The soils of newly cleared tropical forest land are generally of poor quality, leading to low crop yields and sustaining few animals per hectare. But these lands are inexpensive or even free for the taking, usually increasing considerably in value once they are cleared. Palm oil expansion has replaced cattle ranching as the leading cause of tropical and neotropical deforestation, and palm kernel meal cakes are used as animal feed though inferior in nutrients. So it is that, at the regional level of the landscape mosaic, algorithms of averages rule in favor of sustainable production and sustainable markets. It's the economics of deforestation commodities. A year of meat consumption consumes how many trees?
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