> The U.S. market size for palm oil is 2.6 billion pounds (1.2 billion kilograms) annually, he said. He expects that to increase by half a billion pounds a year once trans fats are eliminated.
This is really, really bad news.
This is really, really bad news.
At the same time abandoning palm oil is both extremely impractical and causes numerous other sustainability problems. Palm oil has incredibly high yields per hectare when compared with other oil crops, which is important to consider when discussing it's 'sustainability'. It's yeilds are something like 3-5 tons per hectare per year, while soy/sunflower/others are less than 1 ton/ha/yr. Not to mention the human impact, it's a cash crop for many small holders who's livelihood depends on it. For these reasons, even very vocal environmental organizations like GreenPeace stop short of calling for boycotts... the focus needs to be on producing it sustainably.
Consumers need to demand that the palm oil in their products is sustainably produced e.g. via the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or otherwise. Unfortunately even knowing if palm oil is in your product or not has been difficult, and even brands who use sustainably produced palm oil are hesitant to draw attention to the the oil in their products.
I've worked closely with this program on technical projects, and while it certainly has a number of flaws, the accountably is much higher than for conventional palm oil. I'm really hopeful that research into other methods (Algae oil production) will be more economical/efficient/sustainable, but at the moment it's still theoretical. :(
I'm wondering who the key players are, what is currently being done, whether there's opportunity for public pressure to influence any of the actors, etc.
I'm sure they have a much better assessment than I could ever make of the worst performers, the biggest players, and the key organizations to target to bring change. Not to mention that if they have campaigns running/planned it would be nice to coordinate with what it sounds like your organization is doing. Annisa Rahmawati (@AnisaHijauDamai) was representing them at this years RSPO european roundtable two weeks ago.
The WWF is also very involved with the RSPO and Palm Oil. Good luck!
I'm not arguing for or against palm oil. I know virtually nothing about palm oil; I'm simply criticizing the source.
There is stil some forest left for orangutans and other endangered species, but it is under constant pressure from expanding plantations.
Can the oils that we're currently hydrogenating be used for biofuel production?
Many are specifically worried about palm production because a lot of the areas that are being deforested are also peatlands. They burn the entire area which doesn't just burn the trees, but also a huge amount of peat. This releases a crazy amount of CO2.
You could argue that it isn't palm production's fault and that they shouldn't be burning those areas. As long as it is profitable it will continue though.
Not to suggest that palm oil is a "great thing"; I'm generalizing my counter to the source's argumentative approach.
Yes, all kinds of things are illegal or banned because people will choose to do the wrong thing before the right thing.
I guess I am not really arguing against you. I am just emphasizing that there could be severe future consequences for increasing palm oil demand specifically.
I don't think there are any easy answers here.
https://news.vice.com/article/indonesia-is-killing-the-plane...
Keeping something that hurts people legal because another country is destroying forests is not a workable plan. Indonesia needs to be dealt with separate from the issue of trans fats.