Comment by ZoeZoeBee | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ZoeZoeBee | Hacker News Reader

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Source for your stats on exports to the US from Brazil for Beef and Soy, and the corresponding deforestation of the Amazon. Far as I can tell Brazil exports less than a tenth of what Australia, Canada and New Zealand do to the US.

http://www.thecattlesite.com/news/50023/cme-how-much-brazili...

>Although the maximum limit of Brazilian beef exported to the US could be 64,508 mt, based on market competition it is very unrealistic to think Brazil would overtake the full quota. Longer term (in 2020) these TRQ’s are scheduled to change, and could give Brazil a higher volume ceiling.

>To put this in perspective, in 2015 the US imported 570,740 mt of beef from Australia, 299,955 mt tons from New Zealand, and 285,036 mt from Canada (to name our top 3 sources) for an annual total of 1.5 million mt.

I'd imagine Asia is the major importer of Brazilian Beef, I could be wrong, but don't think so

Soy. I wrote soy exports. Not "beef production exports".

Brazil (with Argentina) is main soy exporter for most of the worlds livestock.

In the documents below you can find clear numbers of how much hectares is used for pasture, corn, soybean etc. and how much stays forest.

The cause of that deforestation is clear, it is soybean + corn + beef = animal agriculture. Brazil has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world.

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/758171468768828889...

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/1...

Yep, except again none of these detail the exports of Soy or Beef to the US. You said USA importation was the cause but it appears that Soy beans too are being exported to Asia not the US.

China buys about 60 percent of soybeans traded globally.

In 2011, China accounted for 43% of Brazilian (top destination) and 25% of Argentinean soy exports

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/soy/fa...

Now would you care to back up your statement

>About 90% of cut Amazon is solely for beef production and soy exports for USA beef production.

Nothing you've supplied comes close to asserting this statement

Yes, I apologize, my statement refers to 90% of cut Amazon. Not that 90% of it is cut for USA.

As for the beef and soy exports it's not enough to check just the exports number. The most important number is beef consumption. Per capita the US has a pretty small consumption. But compared to EU or China, the US is leading, extremely in absolute amounts.

http://beef2live.com/story-world-beef-consumption-per-capita...

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