The dangers of beef - Environmental Watch

Humanist, July-August, 2002 by Zara R. John

In the United States beef is a dietary staple. It's the norm. It's what almost every typical family eats numerous times a week. It's eaten at summer barbecues or a quick stop at McDonald's when there's no time to cook. It's quick and it tastes good.

With all the beef we consume there has to be a way for it to be economically produced and sold. Ranchers use many different methods for the mass production of cattle. These aren't always good. It's quite common for them to inject cattle with hormones and antibiotics and to damage the environment through overgrazing. Overproduction and overconsumption of beef puts both the ecosystem and us at risk.

The agricultural world has generally embraced each new scientific invention and technique for raising cattle. Ranchers have become accustomed to using the cheapest and most productive methods to raise their herds. In order to be able to sell at low prices and make the highest possible profit, they have to put huge numbers of cattle onto large pastures and fields.

There is plenty of cheap land in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America that is steadily being cleared for grazing space. Even though many people may not be aware of it, there's not much rainforest left on this planet. Mexico and Central America used to have 100,000 square miles of rainforest; today there are less than 50,000 square miles remaining. Much of the depletion is a result of ranchers burning and clearing these areas for grazing land.

The soil from rainforests is actually poorly suited for cattle grazing. Its base is very thin because most of the nutrients are immediately recycled back to the canopy of the forest. When this land is grazed, the soil is depleted after a few years and ranchers must move on to new land, ruining still more rainforest. It is shameful and irresponsible that we are so wasteful with one of our richest and most diverse natural habitats. Short-term monetary gain is the motivation and long-term environmental harm is the result. In his 1994 book Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, environmental scientist Jeremy Rifkin says:

   Each of us bares some of the responsibility for the loss of the world's
   ancient rainforests. For example, it is estimated that for every
   quarter-pound hamburger that comes from a steer raised in Central and South
   America it is necessary to destroy approximately 75 kilograms (165 pounds)
   of living matter including some twenty to thirty different plant species,
   perhaps 100 insect species, and dozens of birds, mammal, and reptile
   species.

Not only does this irresponsibility destroy the natural inhabitants but these practices have other serious results. Many people are oblivious to the useful products that come from the tropical rainforests, such as plants declared to have anti-cancer properties. Products derived from plants are used in many surgical procedures and are also ingredients in some birth control pills (cortisone and diogenin are made from the tropical wild yam.) Many natural rubbers, latex, resins, gums, dyes, waxes, and oils are used in industrial materials and cosmetics. All of these--and numerous other plants and animals--are suffering because of beef production.

Cattle ranching not only endangers the natural flora and fauna of rainforests but the native people as well. Only a small percentage of the population (most of them wealthy) own the farm and grazing land of Central and South America. The poor are being pushed off their lands as rich landowners require more and more pasture. Today in Brazil, 4.5 percent of the country's landowners own 81 percent of the nation's farmland, while 70 percent of the rural households are landless. These landowners' greed for profit from beef production is threatening the way of life of millions of people as well as their land.

The production of cattle is also an environmental issue in the United States. Letting cattle ravage large areas of grassland is harmful to our ecosystem too. Overgrazing is one of the biggest problems. Typically the cattle graze extensively on one large area of land, cropping the grass in such a way that the grass species they like best are decimated. The pasture erodes and degrades. Many native plants can no longer be found and other foreign grasses--such as filaree, Russian thistle, halogetan, and cheat grass--take over. Cheat grass is highly flammable after it dies and it can be very susceptible to wildfires, which often burn out of control and destroy wildlife habitat.

After a pasture is ruined, many ranchers plant non-native grass species like crested wheat grass for their cattle. They also spray herbicides on the fields, killing all the bushes and brush. Both these procedures greatly reduce wildlife habitat. They ruin the native shrubs and grasses that wildlife use for nesting, cover, and sustenance.

Some of the most endangered areas are the riparian zones in the southwestern United States. These are the lush, green, fertile areas adjacent to streambeds. Such fields are usually teeming with diverse complexes of plant and animal life. But once cattle touch these lands, the areas quickly degrade. The cattle eat all the new shoots, preventing new growth, and the banks quickly erode. All the undergrowth gets trampled, and the streams become wider and shallower. Many types of fish, including trout, can no longer survive as the streams become shallower, lose oxygen, and grow warmer. When there is no abundant green vegetation, the floodwaters rush through much faster, causing even more erosion. The National Wildlife Federation reports that 75 percent of all endangered species which live in or move through the southwestern United States depend on streamside habitat.