Biodiversity loss: the cost of a hamburger

The meat on your plate could affect biodiversity

Greenhouse emissions and extreme water usage are some of the negatives associated with the meat industry, which are always in the spotlight. But the impact on biodiversity is often overlooked. A report from the World Wildlife Fund revealed that 60 per cent of the global biodiversity loss is due to our meat consumption.

The destruction of forests to make room for cattle grazing, for example, is the main reason ecosystems in the Amazon rainforest are collapsing. Around 17% of the forest has been destroyed in the last 50 years, because of this land use change. The rate of deforestation is so staggering that in 2019 the tropics lost close to 30 soccer fields' worth of trees every single minute.

But it’s not only resources and animals on land that we are overexploiting. Sea life is suffering too. There are 7 billion people on earth but yet the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) found that between 1 and 2.7 trillion fish are taken out from the sea each year, which is more than our oceans could sustain.

In this Beans or Beings podcast, two conservation scientists will talk about biodiversity in sea and on land and how to preserve it. You can listen to the full podcast by clicking on the play button.