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Old 11-24-2005, 06:52 AM
nicky g nicky g is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: London, UK - but I\'m Irish!
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Default Re: Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests

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I love the irony. But I'm not sure how much of that Brazilian production in soybeans is really driven by bio fuel consumption. They have really expanded soy exports to China and elsewhere in East Asia recently, so it might be tofu, not hippie gas, that is the culprit.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say beef is a major culprit too. Someone was telling me (I haven;t checked this, so it may not be reliable) that it takes ten times more soy to feed a cow to get x amount of nutrition in the form of beef as it does to simply eat the soy as soy.

(Sorry, this is the least scientifically precise post ever, but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying).


Some links that support the idea that its soy as animal feed rather than soy as human food that's causing most of the problem - both link the boom to the BSE crisis and a search for alternative animal feeds:

"About 13 percent of the total worldwide soy harvest is either used directly as seed or processed by specific food industries which use the whole soybean (examples are tofu, soy sauce, and other meat and dairy substitutes). An estimated 87 percent is exported to the European Union in the form of soy cakes, used for cattle, poultry, or pig feed."
Soy

and

Rape of the rainforests
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