Plant‑Based Diets Can Halt Rainforest Loss, Countering Soya Misconceptions

Tony Wardle examines the relationship between soy production and rainforest degradation, arguing that shifting to plant‑based diets is the most effective strategy to prevent catastrophic habitat loss.

Why going vegan is the most powerful way to save the rainforest Listen to the Vegan Food & Living Podcast Join Vegan Food & Living and chose between our Print Plus and Digital Plus packages to receive the magazine every month as well as an amazing bundle of benefits Including our best content delivered to your inbox every week, plus our latest special offers! HOME > Animal Impact | Environment | Features | Why Vegan? | Think vegans are destroying the rainforest by eating soya? Think again Tony Wardle explores life beneath the rainforest canopy and explains why eating a plant-based diet is the fastest way to fight deforestation. Tony Wardle explores life beneath the rainforest canopy and explains why shifting to a plant-based diet is the fastest way to halt catastrophic habitat loss I could tell you that rainforests are vital to all life, that they’re still being felled, and that they’re central to controlling global heating. On the other hand, I could start by describing what wondrous, awe-inspiring visions of beauty they are. I’ve visited several rainforests in different parts of the world, but my six months in Costa Rica allowed me to get up close and intimate. Sitting in a little organic café on the edge of the forest, a magnificent blue jay swirled beneath the awning and landed on my head, demanding some of my breakfast, while a troop of capuchin monkeys ordered theirs by loudly rattling the loose corrugated roof sheets. Walking into a rainforest can be very deceptive, as nothing much seems to be happening beneath its soaring canopy – a cloud of midges perhaps, the tinkling of a stream, the distant call of a bird. And then a blood-curdling howl of an animal that sounds like a cross between The Lion King and King Kong; the loudest animal on the planet. Terrifying, unless you know that it is a little creature weighing no more than 11kg at its heaviest. The howler monkeys’ calls can travel for miles, but get too close and they’ll hurl sticks at you from the upper branches, urinate on you or poo into their hands and throw it at you – and believe me, their aim is unerring. Then you dislodge a stone on the path to reveal what looks like a little worm, but is in fact the highly venomous banded coral snake. But fear not, its fangs are set so far back that the only way you could get bitten is if you thrust your little finger down its throat. Howler monkeys are the loudest land animals in the Western Hemisphere; their roaring calls can be heard up to 3 miles away. Photo © Tim/AdobeStock Move some leaves on a tree trunk, and you might reveal a bright-green dart frog with brilliant red eyes, or scan the tree canopy carefully to see a motionless sloth suspended beneath a branch with her baby clinging to her fur. Proceed slowly and quietly, and you’ll certainly see white-nosed coatis, related to raccoons, and black iguanas galore. You’re unlikely to see a tapir or a jaguar, but they’re there. And then the silence is suddenly pierced by a raucous, high-pitched gaggle of noise as a flock of scarlet macaws hurtle through the treetops like a gang of teenagers looking for mischief, the beauty of their plumage almost breathtaking. And, like me, you might be lucky enough to walk out of the forest onto a golden Pacific beach at twilight and see tiny baby turtles digging their way out of their nest and scuttling towards the tide line; the timing dictated by their DNA to avoid vultures and gulls. Preserving the future of our rainforests It’s hardly surprising that an estimated 50 per cent of the world’s plant and animal species reside in rainforests that demand just six per cent of the planet’s surface. In the 1950s, in order to obtain a loan from the World Bank, Costa Rica agreed to its demand to slash down its forests and graze cattle instead. It quickly realised its mistake and placed forest preservation and reforestation at the heart of its development programme. It has now created 30 national parks and 25 per cent of its land area is devoted to forests. This includes cloud forests and dry forests, but tropical rainforests predominate. In the Amazon, cattle ranching drives roughly 70% to 80% of forest loss. Photo © whitcomberd/Adobe Stock Sadly, no other Central and South American countries have followed its example, although Brazil is now dedicated to ending the wholesale destruction of the Amazon. That destruction was, and still is, driven by the demands of animal agriculture. It’s usually initiated by the creation of roads to allow useful felled timber to be extracted, while smaller trees and undergrowth are slashed and burnt. Big agriculture then takes over and develops grazing, mostly for cattle or to sow vast areas of soya crops. Deforestation does not happen by accident, but by design. Don’t let anyone try to embarrass you because you eat soya; some 80 per cent of all the soya produced is used as fodder for farmed animals that provide meat, dairy and eggs and much of the remainder is used…

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