Although up until recently most of the meat production has been to supply the needs of the developed world, a new and more worrying scenario is developing.

As the economies of developing countries grow, in particular Asian countries, greater stress is put on the worlds food production systems.People who once could hardly afford one meal a day are now eating two. The worry however, is that the extra money in peoples pockets now makes meat more affordable. What once was a luxury is now an everyday experience!

The consequences of this are not too difficult to work out. The greater demand for meat products inevitably requires further forest destruction to clear the way for livestock production. In fact, it has been calculated that the demand for meat will double by the year 2050.

How much more land will have to set aside to meet our future needs?

Currently, we use 30% of the worlds soil for farming. There are already about one and a half billion cattle on the planet and nearly 1.8 billion sheep. When you consider that 70% of all agricultural land is used for rearing livestock and that a third of all crop production is used for extra feed for animals – how are we going to possibly cope with future demand?

The fact is we can’t keep moving in the direction we have been without catastrophic results. Deforestation is responsible for nearly 25% of global carbon emissions, nearly as much as the transport and industry groups put together. But it doesn’t stop there! global greenhouse gas emissions produced by raising livestock (methane and nitrous oxide) are actually many more times damaging to the environment, part for part, than CO2.

What makes the the problem greater is that deforested land makes for poor farming. People who farm this land often have to move on and clear more forests just to maintain production. By the year 2050 there will be no tropical rain-forests left!

How do we stop this vicious cycle of deforestation? Only by acting as one to cut the demands we are making and by helping third world countries restore the forests
they once had. When the demand stops the supply will dry up. In the West we already eat twice as much protein than we need, just by halfing our intake of meat and following a green diet we can cut our carbon footprint a lot more than we can by giving up our automobiles! It takes just $100 to save 25000 sq feet of rain-forest ( see arborday.org), enough to combat the effects of driving a car for about 14000 miles.

We can all do a bit to save our planet, we just have to start now!

If you happen to live in California or Florida, you will by now understand that it is a buyer’s market of immense proportions. So many people defaulted on their home mortgages that the inventory of homes may take many months to clear.
Causing prices to drop drastically, if you purchased during high tide, there is a possibility that your home is worth much less then what you purchased it for. Negative equity will also make refinancing harder to get. Not all housing markets are doing badly. Not dropping as much in North Carolina as some have in continental United States. This is because the market was not over-priced to begin with and gains on real estate property had been modest over the years. You need to figure out where your mortgage is at, understand the local market and then you will be able to understand how the global climate will affect your equity. Despite becoming personal, or even if you find yourself upside down in equity, you will still want to be as proactive as possible to figure out how you can solve this mortgage credit crisis.

Speaking with your lender is what you will need to do to compromise your mortgage terms. In order for you to make your mortgage payment, it may be necessary to cut back on some unnecessary expenses. You need to get a clear-cut resolution at buying time. Any little that you do will help you to recover in the long run, the market will recover in time too.