McDonald's hamburgers are so popular that the Golden Arches have become an international symbol of American culture. Unfortunately, eating beef has grave consequences for the Earth and the global population. Meat consumption represents a tremendous waste of precious food resources in a world where millions of people die each year due to malnutrition and starvation. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce a single pound of beef. If this grain was eaten directly by humans rather than converted to animal products, it could feed five times as many people.
Beef production is also a major cause of destruction of the world's rainforests.
Government subsidies and the high prices paid for beef encourage ranchers to burn the forest to create new grazing land. The rainforest's fragile soil is destroyed by grazing within 1-2 years, forcing the ranchers to move to new areas and destroying thousands of species of plants and animals. In some developing countries, farmers are raising beef for export rather than raising food for domestic consumption. This practice is occasionally financed by destructive programs of multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank. It is estimated that 35 percent of American grazing land has been severely decertified.