One direct cause of agriculture expansion is deforestation. This is because some 80% of global deforestation is a result of agricultural production, which is also the leading cause of habitat destruction. Increasingly, the world's agriculture system is expanding its terrestrial footprint to produce livestock feed that meets the growing demand for meat and dairy products or crop-based biofuels.
Agriculture is the largest single cause of deforestation and severe forest degradation. Except in Africa, large-scale livestock ranching and plantation agriculture are generally overtaking small-scale farming as primary causes of conversion.