Piles of Shit from Beef Lovers Replacing the Amazon Forest

 

Much is said about the damage caused by the effects of garbage on the planet, but few talk about the greater damage caused by the piles of human excrement that are destroying the largest forest on the globe. Reports in the Washington Post are showing just how much Americans, as beef lovers, are helping to destroy the Amazon.

Therefore, the Amazon Forest is being replaced by piles of excrement, mainly in the United States and here in Brazil. Instead of having a breath of pure Forest air, our breath and our health are being affected by human waste. In short, we are replacing the beneficial effects of the forest with unhealthy piles of excrement.

It is not just Americans who are responsible for the high consumption of steak in the world. The Brazilian elite has always consumed beef in an exaggerated way. Faced with the high price of the product these days, the Brazilian middle class has substantially reduced meat consumption and about 30% of the population already faces the 'bone line'.

But the effects of this exchange go further. They are not limited only to climatic conditions affecting the entire world but bringing droughts, floods, barren soils, thousands of deaths, food insecurity, and damages never imagined.

It has been said that when we continually take nutrients from one part of the planet and unload it elsewhere, we are causing two problems at once. We are destroying the soil in one part and over-fertilizing in another part.

What we forget about in this equation is that our waste, like a regularly produced potent fertilizer, is going to fertilize the wrong place. It's not farm fields, but "rivers, lakes, marshes, and oceans". In this case, since we don't unload our shit where the food came from, the problem becomes worse.

For Canadian epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews, this is called the "redistribution of nutrients on the planet", which brings ruin to the nutritional balance of ecosystems. To him, you're taking all the biodiversity out of one ecosystem and creating piles of shit elsewhere. In short, the destruction of farm fields will require a greater load of fertilizer.

The initiatives of our governments to finance with public resources the great meat exporters in Brazil, including JBS – the largest beef producer in the world, gave rise to all this, which, for the Washington Post, is happening in an environment of corruption, crime and greed, which is accelerating the destruction of the largest forest in the world, with the complicity of Americans and other consumers, as steak lovers.

It is worth mentioning here the recent book by John Ehrenreich showing us how decades of greed and bad choices have left us so vulnerable in this Pandemic, without thinking about matters that did not seem immediately associated with the coronavirus, such as the growth of large farms, abuse of antibiotics and policies that promoted individual wealth over equality. Ehrenreich's conclusion is that the only way to avoid future pandemics is to end deforestation, factory farms, facing racism, poverty, and political polarization.

From a political point of view, this scenario will hardly change in Brazil, when voters in these regions have always elected the so-called 'Bancada do Boi' as political representatives and even criminal politicians. The only way out that seems viable would be a boycott in this hostile environment, which could be done by both Americans and Brazilians.

Guided by wild capitalism and dominant, perverse, and unsustainable agribusiness in the country and reinforced by the current government, recognized worldwide for encouraging the destruction of the forest, whose greed still seeks the invasion of indigenous lands, seen as a practice of genocide.

As admirers of the American people, most Brazilian people ask for help from those who want, in a democratic way, to help save our planet. Since the two countries are in the same situation of facing the threats of democratic practices, they will be able to unite to prevent tons of beef from being exported to the States, bringing about as harmful effects as those mentioned above.

We should maintain the good principles of food and nutrition security, thinking about commitments to the younger generations, our health, and well-being, and reinforcing our citizenship.