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deforestation
Much as we all love chocolate, it's an uncomfortable truth that the production of chocolate is linked to environmental issues such as <anchor>deforestation</anchor>, and habitat and biodiversity loss, in addition to social issues including forced and child labour. Use the ratings on the Chocolate Scorecard to help you make more sustainable choices when you fancy something sweet.
Take a stand on the deforestation lurking in your weekly shop
deforestation weekly shop

Irina_Strelnikova

# Why your groceries are contributing to deforestation - and what to do about it

This is what you can do to make sure your weekly shop isn't contributing to the destruction of the rainforest

Almost 60% of us say the destruction of the rainforest is one of the environmental issues we're most worried about, alongside climate change and plastic pollution, a survey of readers by Good Housekeeping has shown – and we’re right to be worried.

Last year, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil alone hit a 12-year high, according to data from by INPE (Brazil's National Institute for Space Research), and the problem doesn't stop there. Globally, an area of forest twice the size of the UK has been lost in the last decade, warns environmental charity WWF.

While none of us would like to think we're contributing to rainforest destruction, we could unwittingly be contributing to the problem when we do the weekly shop. How? Greenpeace estimates that 80% of the deforestation that occurs around the world takes place to clear land to produce the food we eat. This is what you should know about the hidden deforestation that could be lurking in your groceries, the link to climate change and what you can do about it.

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## What’s the link between deforestation and climate change?

Forests play a key role in combatting climate change, with tropical forests alone storing seven times more carbon than we humans create in carbon emissions each year, says WWF. Katie White, executive director of advocacy and campaigns at the environmental charity explains: “When we talk about climate change, we often focus on the things we can do to reduce carbon emissions from things like heating our homes and producing our food. But we often overlook the other equally important part of the jigsaw, which is the role the rainforests play in drawing carbon down from the atmosphere.”

As more forest is cleared to grow food, there are fewer trees are left to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. This in turn makes it harder to keep the level of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in check, which can contribute to global warming.

What makes the problem worse is that when rainforest is cleared for farming, carbon stored in the soil beneath the forest is actually released back into the atmosphere, too. “Many people will know that trees take in carbon and store carbon, but they might not know that there is also a huge amount of carbon that is stored in the soil beneath these trees,” explains Anna Jones Head of Forests at Greenpeace. “In fact, soil is the second largest store of carbon in the world, after the oceans."

"The carbon stored in soil may have built up over thousands or millions of years as plants and animals have died, and it is particularly concentrated in the soil underneath forests. When you chop down trees in a forest, you not only lose the trees which would otherwise absorb carbon, you also end up releasing the carbon from the soil those trees were growing in if it is ploughed up and given over to agriculture.”

deforestation weekly shop

Katrin Vasileva

## Why is action on deforestation urgently needed?

With deforestation in countries such as Brazil gathering pace instead of slowing down, scientists have warned that there could come a tipping point, after which the Amazon rainforest actually starts to die back. This is because the Amazon rainforest, which needs wet weather conditions to survive, is so vast that its trees actually generate half of the rainfall they need to survive. If too many are cut down, the forest will essentially start to dry out.

Jones adds: “There’s a range of opinion as to when this will happen but there’s agreement across the board that if deforestation continues, there will come a tipping point when the Amazon loses its ability to maintain itself as a rainforest and will essentially dry out. It’s believed that around 17% of the Amazon has already been degraded and that this tipping point will be reached once 20-25% of the rainforest has been damaged or destroyed. Based on current rates of deforestation, that would happen within the next 20 years.”

Greenpeace says that halting deforestation and restoring the planet’s rainforests is the cheapest and fastest way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. And if you’ve seen the recent David Attenborough documentary, A Life on our Planet, you’ll know that this is possible – after two thirds of the rainforest in Costa Rica was cleared, the country has worked to double the size of its remaining rainforest in the past 40 years.

## How can I take a stand on deforestation?

With so much forest being cleared to make way for commercial food production, making changes to the way we shop is a good place to start if you want to take a stand on deforestation. Here are four things you can do now that will make a difference:

## 1. Buy less meat and dairy

“One of the biggest changes we can make to help forests is to reduce our consumption of meat and dairy – and not just red meat but chicken and pork too,” says Greenpeace's Anna Jones. “That’s because 90% of the soya we import from places like Brazil and Argentina – where forests are cleared to grow it – is used as feed for these animals.”

WWF says that global soya production has risen by more than a third in the last 10 year. It warns that scientists predict an additional area of land twice the size of Switzerland will be needed to grow animal feed alone by 2028 unless we change the amount of meat and dairy products we consume.

## 2. Choose grass-fed meat

When you do buy meat, try to buy grass-fed meat. While this sounds simple, it's not always as straightforward as you might think. That's because meat can be sold as grass-fed if it's from an animal that has been 'predominantly' fed grass. What that means, in effect, is that a cow or a sheep could be fed 51% grass and the meat from it could be sold as grass-fed. The rest of its diet could have been made up of feeds including soya - some of which could have been grown in deforested areas.

To be certified organic, lamb or beef must have come from animals that have been fed a diet that is at least 60% grass. But the actual proportion of grass fed to many organically reared animals is likely to be higher than this, the Soil Association told us.

None of the supermarkets we contacted for this article were prepared to comment publicly on the proportion of grass fed to the animals they source their meat from.

If you're prepared to shop further afield, there are meat suppliers online that specialise in 100% grass-fed beef and lamb. Pipers Farm is one of them and sells beef and lamb from animals that (once weaned) have only ever been fed grass and forage (plant material that supplements the animals' diet of grass). Its rack of lamb came top in our Easter taste test.

A list of other 100% grass-fed meat suppliers can be found on the website of the Pasture For Life Association, which runs a certification scheme for meat from animals fed a diet of 100% grass and forage and - specifically - no soya. The PFLA says the current laws around the labelling of grass-fed meat is "grossly misleading" and is campaigning for better meat labelling to make it easier for consumers to see exactly what they are paying for. "In an environment where people are increasingly looking to make more sustainable food choices, transparent labelling is needed," the PFLA's Jimmy Woodrow commented. "We’d like to see a labelling system introduced where all claims must be qualified - with the percentage grass-fed shown - and backed up by independent verification."

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## 3. Avoid products containing palm oil, where possible

By now most of us will know that palm oil – a cheap ingredient that manufacturers use to improve the texture and shelf life of products ranging from bread to ice cream – has been linked to rainforest deforestation in countries such as Indonesia. If you don’t like the thought that your shopping could be contributing to the problem, either switch to products that don’t contain palm oil, or look for products that contain certified sustainable palm oil, instead.

## 4. Look for the logo

Look for products such as chocolate or coffee that carry the Rainforest Alliance certification tree frog logo. This shows that a product has been grown and produced in a way that doesn’t contribute to deforestation or damage other natural habitats such as wetlands and peatlands.

## ‘Never underestimate your power as a purchaser’

While there is clearly still a lot that retailers, manufacturers and governments need to do to ensure our food doesn’t contribute to the destruction of areas of rainforest, WWF’s Katie White says that, as consumers, we have a louder voice on these issues than we might think we do. “Food is one area where you really can make a difference," she says. "Ultimately, it’s governments and supermarkets that need to act to stop deforestation, but you can signal your concern to them through the things you buy. Never underestimate your power as a purchaser.”

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