Reply #8: Argentina is good at growing beef. Brazil is good at growing corn

[HamdenRice]

So Argentina grows more beef than it needs and Brazil grows more corn than it needs and they trade them.

When Brazil tries to grow its own beef (not having been endowed with the Pampas, but instead with the rain forest), you get slash and burn of the rain forest for pastures that last only a few years.

Eating locally when possible is a good idea, but taken to extremes can be as destructive as factory farming.