Brazil's beef trade wrecks rainforest

摘要

World demand for Brazilian beef is soaring, as consumers see it as a cheap, disease-free alternative to mad cows and flu-ridden poultry. But supplying the global beef market is deforesting the Amazon far faster than the logging trade. An international forestry research body reports this week that Brazilian cattle ranchers are felling the world's largest rainforest with unprecedented speed to make way for pasture. "Brazil's deforestation rates are skyrocketing and beef production for export is to blame," says David Kaimowitz, director-general of the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research, an organisation backed by the World Bank.