Importing food damages domestic environment

Trees falling as fragile forests become cropland is a visual shorthand for the environmental costs exporting countries pay to meet lucrative global demands for food. Yet a new study reveals a counterintuitive truth: Importing food also damages homeland ecology. In this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at Michigan State University and their colleagues show that the decisions domestic farmers must make as imported food changes the crop market can damage the environment.