Palm oil puts case against environmentalists' false claims

Reprinted from The National Business Review

Global warming is fast petering out as a cause that raises alarm and over-fishing is also less of a threat, thanks to the introduction of quotas and other measures.

So what's new in the list of campaigns that attempt to undermine western industrialised economies and keep the Third World locked in poverty?

Palm oil is one, and it has come under attack from a concerted media campaign, headed by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

In New Zealand, the Sunday Star-Times has led the charge with a journalist's visit to Indonesia to inspect the impact of palm oil plantations and generation of local opposition to palm kernel imports as a supplementary feed for dairy cows.

But now the industry is fighting back through World Growth, a pro-globalisation organisation that promotes trade as the best generator of health, wealth and freedom.

In a series of briefing papers, World Growth accuses Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth of attacking the palm oil industry because it's successful, and says the environmental groups ignore the contribution to lifting people out of poverty.

World Growth says palm is the fastest growing, cheapest, highest quality and most sustainable vegetable oil in production. Analyses by the US Department of Agriculture show annual production from Indonesia and Malaysia (which account for nearly 90% of world production) has risen over the past decade from 15,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes.

Further, the industry rejects claims that palm oil is unhealthy, as other vegetable oil industries have claimed, and says it contains no trans fats.

The campaign against palm oil has had some effect. For example, the European Union has imposed trade restrictions on imports of biofuels (particularly palm oil).

In New Zealand, Cadbury dropped the use of palm oil in its chocolate because of public opinion based largely on claims made by anti-palm oil advocates.

World Growth has issued a report, Palm Oil - The Sustainable Oil, to restore balance in public discussion of palm oil. The following is a summary of the report's rebuttal of key claims made against palm oil:

DEFORESTATION

Claim: Palm oil leads to widespread deforestation
Fact: The primary cause of deforestation is poverty
Some 60-70% of land clearing is undertaken by the poor and poverty stricken seeking shelter, fire wood or land for subsistence farming.

Malaysia has dedicated more than 55% of land as permanent forest reserve while Indonesia has set aside 25%.

Advances are occurring all the time to improve the yield and productivity of palm oil plantations, which reduces demand for further land clearing.

Furthermore, many new plantations across Malaysia are being planted on degraded land, which improves the quality of the land and absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. Other plantations are occurring on land formerly planted with less efficient crops.

ORANG-UTAN THREAT

Claim: Palm Oil plantations are endangering the Orang-utan
Fact: The loss of orang-utan habitat is caused by human settlement

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia have both stated that the primary cause of the loss of habitat of the Orang-utan is human settlement and large-scale forestry plantations.

However, the palm oil industry, in collaboration with some environmental groups, is funding orang-utan conservation programmes and wildlife habitat corridors.

POVERTY

Claim: Palm oil plantations harm the poor and indigenous
Fact: Palm oil plantations are highly efficient at ending poverty and improving living standards

Palm oil is one of few plantation crops that can return an income to a small landholder. In Indonesia almost half of all palm plantations are owned by small landholders; in Malaysia it is 40%. Palm oil has been recognised by the World Bank as one of the best means to reduce poverty and raise standards of living.

SUSTAINABILITY

Claim: Palm oil is not sustainable
Fact: Palm oil uses less land, energy and fertiliser, and produces more energy, than other vegetable oil crop.

Palm oil generates nearly 10 times the energy it consumes. Soybeans generate only three times the amount and rapeseed (canola) only 2.5 times. The oil palm needs only 0.26ha of land to produce one tonne of oil. Soybean, sunflower and rapeseed respectively require 2.22, 2 and 1.52ha.

The palm oil industry, in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund, has initiated the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to create certification systems for sustainably produced oil. In addition, palm oil producing nations impose many environmental and other legal requirements on palm oil plantations.

GREENHOUSE GASES

Claim: Palm oil is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions
Fact: Oil palms sequester more carbon dioxide than other oil seeds and most other plantations

Lifecycle analysis of carbon footprints of various oilseeds shows greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil are significantly lower than rapeseed and soybean. There is not sufficient research to draw any conclusions on the impact of palm oil crops on greenhouse gas emissions.

Epilogue:

In the view of the Palm Oil Truth Foundation, World Growth should be lauded for having the vision and courage to see through and expose the hype and falsehoods spewed by the likes of Greenpeace and the Friends of the Earth about palm oil.

The Palm Oil Truth Foundation has been a lonely voice in the wilderness, pointing out for some years now, that the anti-palm oil campaigns are clearly a well funded and well planned proxy trade war cleverly disguised as legitimate environmental concerns!

The mainstream media has been mindlessly lapping up the hype and regurgitating them ad
infinitum. It is certainly heartening that the media is finally waking up to the dubious nature of Greenpeace and FOE's claims!

The total world acreage planted with palm oil is less than 1% of the world agricultural area. It is certainly a stretch for the agitators to allege that palm oil is responsible for "massive deforestation" that is contributing 20% of global carbon emission and causing global warming!

More likely, the fact that palm oil is fast becoming the most popular edible oil in the world could be the real reason behind the discomfiture of its competitors with palm oil's growth that has triggered this agitation in the first place.

The Palm Oil Truth Foundation is compelled to ask whether the real motives behind the anti-palm oil movement could be motivated by the fact that palm oil is:

1. the most productive of all edible oils
2. inherently healthful as it is naturally rich in anti-oxidants like tocotrienols, Co Q10 and beta-carotenes (which is why the oil is naturally red in colour)
3. the cheapest cooking oil in the world due to its incredible yield and because of its price advantage is now increasingly popular as a feedstock for biodiesel.

It is time that the main stream media wake up to the fact that these anti-palm oil campaigns are really cleverly disguised proxy trade wars.THE END

Palm Oil Truth Foundation (TRUTH Foundation) is an international non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation, without strings to the world of commerce and power. We are a people organisation, organised for the people and founded upon the principles of integrity and responsibility as a global citizen with the sole purpose of representing TRUTH to the global community about health, environmental and economic benefits of palm oil.

The TRUTH Foundation is an international network of social conscience and cooperation among peoples in industry, government, academia and the ordinary global consuming public, strengthening the forces devoted to respect, justice and equality for a more just and sustainable world and for global peace.