Many people mistakenly believe that there is at least one fringe benefit to the fact that the rainforests are being cut down: it makes room for farmland. On the one hand, deforestation creates imbalances in agricultural land both right around it and around the world, all without producing equally viable farmland to balance that effect. On the other hand, there are many untapped food supplies in little-known species of fruits and other plants waiting to be discovered in rainforests.

In actual fact, deforestation of the rainforests continues to destabilize the global climate, which in turn has a negative impact on much more agricultural land than the amount left by the deforestation. Moreover, the land that results from deforestation is poor land for agricultural purposes in the first place, ill-suited to both crop growth and grazing. Worse yet, the moderately-viable land that is gained by deforestation is infrequently put to its best use possible - usually it drained of all its growth potential and quickly becomes useless. Also, adjacent lands - once the rainforests are cleared - are often subject to residual pollution from the clearing or burning process and fall victim to soil erosion which can ruin already viable farmlands.

The vast majority of food consumed in the world today came at one point from rainforests. As such, countless varieties of potential future crops that have yet to be discovered are being lost with them. For example, natives of the rainforests eat ten times more different kinds of fruit than people in the rest of the world - all of which could be potentially grown and eaten elsewhere.

So, not only do the rainforests affect both local and global food supplies directly by altering regional and global climates, but they also represent a vast wealth of information and potential future food sources we have yet to discover!

For more information visit: http://www.rain-tree.com/facts .htm

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