the price of a hamburger When you go to a fast food restaurant, you probably take the amazingly cheap price of beef for granted; 99 cents for a hamburger is pretty standard nowadays. But the real cost of beef goes far, far beyond a mere dollar. Cows require large areas of pastureland as well as grain that must be grown on farmland. An estimated 64% of American farmland is used to raise crops for livestock feed. Around 260 million acres of forest in the United States alone have been cleared to produce livestock. However, the farming in the US is relatively stable; that is, we are not clearing very much new land any more. Central America, however, is another story. The majority of the farmers who raise cattle in Central America use a primitive land clearing technique called slash-and-burn to clear rainforest. This process consists of cutting all the trees in a lot, letting them dry for a few days, and then burning them. In this way fire becomes the poor man's combination plow and fertilizer. This method has been used for centuries by native tribes with little impact on the environment. However, today, clearing is occurring at an unprecedented rate and the forest is simply not able to keep up. The soil in the rainforest is very rich in nutrients. However, there's not much of it. Usually, after only a year of farming or grazing, the soil has been depleted of nutrients and the farmers must clear another plot and begin again. In addition, once the trees in an area have been cut, erosion begins to take a heavy toll on the land. More nutrient-rich soil is lost to streams, which become silty and may not be able to support aquatic life. Erosion can create huge ravines which permanently disfigure the landscape. How widespread is this problem? Obviously, not all beef is produced in the rainforest. However, the US alone imports around 200 million pounds of beef from Central America per year. The prices we pay for beef do not reflect the true price we exact from the environment. Deforestation is only one of a slew of environmental woes that cattle raising wreaks upon the earth. ITEM: Hamburger PRICE: 99 cents.. and 55 sq. feet of rainforest     So, the next time you contemplate buying a 99 cent hamburger, think about the price that isn't included. It may sound like a good deal at first, but somewhere down the line the debt is going to have to be paid; if not by us, then by the next generation or the next.

The Price of a Hamburger | Rainforest Crunch | Completing the Cycle | Credits