What “benefit” did the Rusties get from clear-cutting?

Clear-cutting supplied the Rusties with land for agriculture and raising cattle.... a place for the cattle to feed. It gave them meat.

“Clear-cutting” was the word for what the Rusties had done to the old forests: felling every tree, killing every living thing, turning entire countries into grazing land. Whole rain forests had been consumed, reduced from millions of interlocking species to a bunch of cows eating grass, a vast web of life traded for cheap hamburgers.