Agriculture and livestock have a vast impact on the environment. Both require extensive areas, since almost 8 billion people must be fed. These huge spaces are usually taken at the expense of trees and the deforestation of forests and rainforests. This has a huge environmental impact that can even affect the climate of the entire planet. Intensive agriculture, implemented almost a century and a half ago, causes the degradation of soils due to the excessive application of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. The limited knowledge about land conservation techniques and organic fertilizers plays an important role in the damage and loss of soils.

According to the FAO, in a long-standing report, it was already reported that the degradation of the soil to be dragged by water or winds represents the loss of between five and seven million hectares of arable land annually on the planet. In places with a dry climate, the wind raises huge dust clouds from soils without vegetation cover, the main source of air pollution in nearby and even remote places.

As for livestock, massive eating requires excessive land use. When the quantity of animals exceeds the capacity of the area, there is an enormous pressure on the soils and the consumption of forage, in addition to the erosion and degradation of the fertility of the land and vegetation.