Is half of recent deforestation on Earth related to food and drink production?
Food and drink production has played a major role in deforestation since cultivation began thousands of years ago, with the pressures in the past century stronger in tropical forests than in temperate climates.
A 2018 study by the American Association of Advancement of Science looked at the causes of deforestation around the world in the first 15 years of this century. The study attributed 24% of deforestation to shifting agriculture use and 27% to commodity production (which includes agriculture as a category), meaning around half of recent deforestation is related to agriculture.
A UN report cites estimates that commercial agriculture accounted for 40% of deforestation in the tropics and subtropics between 2000 and 2010, with “local subsistence agriculture” accounting for 33%. North American forest area was stable through the 20th century, after declining for the prior two centuries.
