Clearing for farming is the leading direct cause of rainforest destruction. Shifting cultivators farming for subsistence as well as for the market (be it local or for export), as well as large-scale industrial agriculture combined, have a devastating impact on the world’s rainforests as well as all forests.

Clearly, much of the food produced on former rainforest lands is needed to feed the growing human population. However, much of it is to feed a demand for tropical products in rich nations, and to feed a growing demand for higher-calorie diets for wealthier humans.

For instance, soy bean production in Brazil is skyrocketing. Much of the product, however, goes to livestock feed, to produce beef and other meat for northern industrial nations and the increasingly wealthier populations in Latin America.

Sugar was probably the first export agricultural product responsible for the large-scale clearing of rainforests. Sugar production first arrived to the neotropics in the West Indies, where vast areas were cleared for sugar exports to Europe. The US become a large importer in the 1800s (and eventually also a large producer), as sugar production expanded throughout the tropics. Now, Australia, Fiji and Brazil are large producers, in addition to Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Mexico.

Expansion of coffee production in the early part of last century, driven in large part by the World Bank, as well as the expansion of banana production and palm oil production have been responsible for the destruction of millions of acres.

Banana production is particularly problematic as many former plantations were abandoned after short periods after land became de-nutrified, with companies moving to and clearing new rainforest areas.

Other agriculture for export, driven by the UN and World Bank, include apples, strawberries, flowers, cocoa, pineapples, mangoes, avocados and cashews.

Some companies and growers have begun reversing the destructive trends, re‰dopting older, more sustainable methods, to bring back the health and diversity of the land.

Most of the produce mentioned above can be grown in the shade of the understory, beneath healthy rainforests, without the use of chemicals.

Cocoa producers in Central America and a few in Africa are expanding production in this way.

Coffee producers in Central America are as well expanding shade-grown, organic and coˆp grown coffee production.

Rainforest Relief is involved in a project in Costa Rica where organic, shade-grown bananas are being grown by farmers that have organized into local coˆperatives.

For more about agricultural products, see What to Avoid.