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05/08/2008: "Is Cheap Meat Bigger Threat to Amazon than Biofuels?"

Development politicians fear that the demand on land to grow biofuels is diminishing agricultural production and, as a result, continuing to drive food prices ever higher. Environmental groups, such as Greenpeace Germany, say that although the expansion of sugar cane cultivation is taking place far away from the rainforest, it could still drive soya
production and animal farming into ecologically sensitive areas. On top of that, scientists have calculated bioethanol produces more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than normal gas.

According to Silva, at the moment only 1 percent of the country is planted with sugar cane -- so it cannot possibly be competing with food production.

However, the German environment minister sees doesn't see biofuels as posing the greatest danger to the rainforest. He'd much rather that Germans came to an uncomfortable realization: the big problem concerns the soya that Europe imports as animal feed, and the subsidies that support European farmers. "German farmers are profiting from the logging
of the rainforest much more than Brazilians," Gabriel said. He argues that German society must take a hard look at its meat consumption.

[ Also worth noting that pet ownership is responsible for a lot of meat consumption - dogs outnumber children in many western nations. ]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,552027,00.html