Land Use
...or "where do they put all those animals?"

Most deforestation is done in the name of the meat industry, to grow feed crops or for livestock grazing.4

For every one acre of land lost to shopping centers, houses, roads, and other developments, 7 acres are lost for feedlots and feed cropland.4

This loss of forest land leads to topsoil erosion (there are no trees to keep the topsoil in place). This year, in the United States, we will lose 17 billion tons of topsoil to erosion.4

In many places, erosion leads to desertification. In the African Sahel, a place where overgrazing and bad agricultural practices are common, the Sahara desert is advancing at a rate of 3-4 miles per year.3

The overgrazing of deforested land is a major cause of desertification.


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