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Anti-Palm Oil Campaigns: A Carefully Planned and Coordinated Global Agenda? |
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Written by Jon Tomczyk
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Friday, 29 August 2008 |
 The palm oil industry is more than a century old and today, it is the most widely used edible oil in the world. With a productivity of 4.5 metric tons per hectare, compared to 0.5 metric tons per hectare typical of competing oil seeds, palm oil is popular with food manufacturers for several reasons.
First, as a function of its high productivity, it is relatively cheap. Secondly, as a vegetable oil, it is trans fat and cholesterol free. Thirdly, as a cooking oil, it is relatively tolerant of high cooking temperatures, making it a preferred edible oil for use in food manufacturing, baking and fast food chains. Finally, palm oil is naturally endowed with heart friendly vitamins such as Co-Enzyme Q10, beta-carotenes and tocotrienols ( a superior form of Vitamin E).
It is also suitable as a component of biofuel and bio-diesel and in view of its productivity and lower costs, its potential as feedstock in the production of bio-fuel and bio-diesel is enormous.
However, it is precisely for the above reasons that in recent times, palm oil has come increasingly under attack. First in the mid-eighties, the dubious Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) launched a scathing campaign alleging falsely that palm oil was unhealthy and bad for the heart. When the weight of scientific evidence was brought to bear on the issue, proving through many scientific studies that palm oil was, in fact heart friendly and good for health, CSPI quickly abandoned this campaign.
However, they were not done yet. In June 2005, CSPI changed tactics and launched another campaign called “Cruel Oil” alleging that palm oil production promotes destruction of the rainforest, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia and that further loss of forest may push endangered animal species, including orangutans, Sumatran tigers, and Sumatran rhinos, into extinction.
Disingenuous and this is because Malaysia at that time was the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Despite cultivating palm oil for more than a century, the small country could still boast forest cover of more than 65% which is far higher than the 20% prevailing in the US and the industrialized west. Again, CSPI’s claims against Indonesia were also disingenuous because Indonesia can also boast of the same percentage of forest cover. The claims of potential extinction are totally unjustified because the orang utan population in the wild in Borneo alone currently stands at close to 69,000. Talk of extinction is, in the view of the Palm Oil Truth Foundation stretching the strings of credulity to breaking point!
To the Palm Oil Truth Foundation, what is disconcerting and patently obvious even to any casual reader is the manner in which the environmental organizations take turns to attack palm oil, launching their anti-palm oil campaigns one after the other, like an unethical game of opprobrious musical chairs. Organizations like Wetlands, followed immediately by Friends of the Earth who is then followed by Greenpeace and currently the Rainforest Action Network appears to have picked up the baton. Their campaigns appear to be well funded and the timing of their anti-palm oil campaign launches appears to be coordinated and carefully scheduled.
This clear pattern has emerged and it would not take a genius to figure out that some unseen hand is at work here. Just who is funding this anti-palm oil agenda?
In the view of the Palm Oil Truth Foundation, the obvious answer has to be a competing country or oil seed lobby – an industry that stands to lose big if palm oil continues to make exponential growth in its exports into the traditional edible oil seed markets. The advent of bio-fuel and bio-diesel and palm oils suitability as a feedstock for this green fuel appears to have triggered this “Stop Palm Oil At-All Costs” global agenda. THE END.
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Yes, for some strange reason it sure looks like Greenpeace, FoE and RAN have ganged up on palm oil. Must be for the money that's furnished by the anti-palm oilers. Posted by Axle Rod, on November 26, 2009 at 6:34
Edelstein is correct. The Rainforest Action Network is a cloud of bad energy! I should know. I used to be a donor, until I found out about their modus operandi and the REAL reasons for their anti-palm oil work! Posted by Janelle, on September 10, 2008 at 5:36
The officials of RAN should be thrown in the slammer coz that's where they belong. Con artists and crooks! Posted by Phil Evans, on August 31, 2008 at 1:10
RAN and all those environmental organizations like Greenpeace, FOE and RAN are nothing but clouds of bad energy! Posted by J. Edelstein, on August 31, 2008 at 0:18
Yeah. The pattern is obvious. Some unseen hand is at work here. The moment one Enviornmental NGO like Greenpeace finishes an anti-palm oil campaign, another like RAN begins its anti-palm oil rant. These rascals have been paid by some vested interest to stop palm oil from continuing its spectacular growth! Crooks, that's what these environmental NGO's like Greenpeace and RAN are! Posted by Glen Gorman, on August 30, 2008 at 23:55
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Anti-Palm Oil Campaigns: A Carefully Planned and Coordinated Global Agenda? 
