Palm Oil: Green groups out of sync

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by: Palm Hugger
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Word Count: 779
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2010 Time: 3:40 AM
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Karen and I sat backwards on a train journey last summer. Sitting on seats that faced the rear of the train, all we could see was where we had been, not where we were going. Trees, lakes and buildings flew by the window after we had passed it. It was always an uncomfortable feeling, like something isn't right. I didn't like it. I'd rather see where I'm going.

In some ways, the discerning public's view of the actions by green advocates' such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth's (FOE) towards palm oil should be similar to mine - something isn't right!

After all, palm oil is the most sustainable of all oilseed crops. Yet these green advocates could see it fit to accuse palm oil of causing massive deforestation and peat lands and playing havoc with ecosystems and biodiversity and claim that deforestation costs anything between $2-5tn dollars a year and causes 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with both Greenpeace and FOE shrilly demanding that growth of palm oil be reined in.

Whilst acknowledging that palm oil fuels the developing economies of Indonesia and Malaysia, Greenpeace and FOE claim that it is also irrevocably damaging them. As demand for oil palm grows in the EU and in the burgeoning economies of India, China and the rest of the world, both green groups bayed that we will start paiying the environmental costs soon.

What is interesting is that both groups which hail from the UK remain silent over the 33 millions tons of carbon emitted during the annual process of coal mining in the UK. Yet the cultivation of palm oil which has been hailed recently by researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands as "the most efficient energy crop," is systematically demonized as destructive of rainforest and contributing to global warming.

The university's finding is a rejection of environmental NGOs and the anti-palm oil lobbyists who consistently claim that palm oil is unsustainable.

Its research found that palm oil, sugar cane and sweet sorghum are currently the most sustainable energy crops. These commodities also produce "far smaller quantities of greenhouse gases than fossil fuels".

The university's analysis considered nine different energy crops against nine different sustainability criteria with palm oil coming out on top while biofuel from maize from the United States and wheat from Europe scored far lower.

The report's author, Sander de Vries, concluded that sustainable sugar canes and oil palms get the most energy per hectare and cause the least environmental damage.

Another researcher, Dr Gernot Pehnelt, founder and director of GlobEcon, an independent research and consulting institute based in Germany, released a new study that revealed the biased and prejudicial nature of the EU's Renewable Energy Directive towards foreign biofuels.

The report, entitled "European Policies Towards Palm Oil: Sorting Out Some Facts," demonstrated that the assumptions contained in the directive about the ecological impact of foreign biofuels reflected political and not scientific or economic reality.

Dr Pehnelt came to the defense of the rich biodiversity in oil palm plantations, their excellent crown cover that oil palms provide and the yield per hectare advantages of this low-energy and low-fertilizer crop.

"Sadly, many of the claims that foreign biofuels, specifically palm oil, are a threat to the environment are seriously flawed, some even completely unfounded," he said, adding that the side effects of the flawed policies could give rise to political friction and trade disputes to severe economic handicaps for developing countries.

"This new study makes a strong case that RED discriminates against non-EU producers of biofuels, such as Asian palm oil.

"Perhaps most importantly, palm oil acts as a substantial driver of economic growth in the developing world, drastically reducing hunger and poverty in regions that actively cultivate this valuable crop.

"It's time for Europe to not only recognize the energy and environment benefits of palm oil, but also the suffering in low-income, tropical countries that palm oil critics continue to perpetuate," said Dr Pehnelt.

In the view of Palmhugger.org, given the obvious predilection of green groups like Greenpeace, FOE and RAN to ignore ecological events of far greater proportions and their ominous manipulation and cherry picking of facts to get consumers and multinational food manufacturers like Unilever and Nestle to ostracize palm oil, the media should have been adequately alerted to the probability that there is something out of sync and that there is more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye with these green groups! THE END.

About the Author

Palm Hugger is a palm oil advocacy site that makes no apologies for exposing the lies, untruths and equivocations on palm oil spewed by a coterie of environmental morons against the world's most sustainable edible oil and biofuel feedstock. We are part of a collective group of palm oil sympathizers that have grown tired of the blatant untruths, spin, lies and unfair trade bloc promoting activities of green NGOs like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FOE) against palm oil.