When considering the advantages and disadvantages of palm oil should society continue to farm, produce, consume and use it?

Introduction/Background

Palm oil is commonly used for food products, detergents, cosmetics and even as a biofuel. This single vegetable oil is found in approximately 40-50% of household products in many developed countries. Global production of palm oil has doubled over the last decade. By 2000, palm oil was the most produced and traded vegetable oil accounting for 40% of all vegetable oils traded. By the year 2006, the percentage had risen to nearly 65%. Worldwide demand for palm oil is expected to double again by 2050 to 240 million tons. With this increase, new plantations are being developed and existing ones are being expanded in Indonesia, Malaysia, other Asian countries, as well as in Africa and Latin America. Palm oil is often disguised in ingredient lists on products and will be listed as many different names.

Palm oil comes from the fruit of an African oil palm tree. After three years of growth, the tree will bear fresh fruit that is made up of %50 oil. The oil is then extracted from the fruit through its “nut” or also known as the “kernel” which is located in the center of the fruit. Once the tree has been dried of oil it is then bulldozed in order to make room for new oil palms.

 

Pros

Palm oil is the highest yielding vegetable oil right now on the planet and it is the most profitable crop to plant.  Not only that, but it is also cheap. Author, Marieke Leegwater, mentions in her article that it is “an easy to use, flexible product,” it adapts well to any future change in a product design. Palm oil is used for several different household items and is one of the most produced vegetable oil. Its presence in the economy is crucial and it helps contribute to the success of several different companies that produce candy, detergents, ice cream and etc.

The Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (or RSPO) developed a set of environmental and social rules of which companies must comply with in order to produce a certified sustainable palm oil known as CSPO. These rules when properly applied help to minimize negative impacts of palm oil cultivation. The most important RSPO rule states that no primary forests or areas that contain significant concentrations of biodiversity, considered to have fragile ecosystems, or areas that are fundamental to meeting basic or traditional cultural needs of local communities can be cleared. Other important RSPO rules have significantly reduced the use of pesticides and fires, the fair treatment of workers according to labor rights standards, and the need to inform and consult with local communities before the development of new plantations on their land. Only by being RSPO-certified producers are able to claim that they produce, use and/or sell sustainable palm oil. The Oil Palm is a project created by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council in order to promote awareness and support for Malaysia’s palm oil industry, which is the world’s second largest producer of palm oil. 

A group number of health enthusiasts are aware that coconut oil is the reigning king of healthy oils, and this article compares and contrasts both the advantages and disadvantages of palm oils and coconut oil. Overall, although those researchers show that coconut oil still maintains the strong #1 position among the choices of healthy oils, palm oil over-matches it in certain aspects. The fatty acid composition (50% saturated, 40% unsaturated, and 10% polyunsaturated) of palm oil is different from other plant and animal, it does not promote atherosclerosis or arterial thrombosis. Palm oil does contain following phytonutrients: carotenoids, sterols, vitamin E, water-soluble powerful antioxidants, etc., of which coconut oil does not have that much. And the consumption of palm oil reduces the risk of a variety of disease processes, including Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

Palm oil is a major contributor to economies all across the world. Palm oil provides a substantial amount of developing countries income such as Malaysia and Indonesia. In 2010 alone Malaysia and Indonesia exported a total of 31.1 million tons of palm oil. During this year the value of palm oil exportation for these two countries was a total of $29.8 US dollars.

 

Cons

Palm oil is a huge leading cause for heart disease and stroke. Cited within the article is Doctor Astrid Pujari and he states that “The fat content in palm oil is about 50 percent saturated and 50 percent unsaturated.” It has been encouraged to stay away from by both American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association due to its harmful effects on human health.

Almost all oil palm grows in areas that were once tropical moist forests, some of them quite recently. almost all of the forests vulnerable to oil palm development have high biodiversity. The conversion to date, and future expansion threatens biodiversity and increases greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation of tropical moist forests increases carbon emissions. The replacement of natural forests with monoculture palm plantations reduces overall plant diversity and eliminates the many animal species that depend on natural forests. Palm oil 

Palm oil raises concerns about CO2 emissions caused by cutting down trees to form plantations and the lack of biodiversity in the plantations. Increasing worldwide demand of palm oil leads to extensive rain forest depletion; furthermore, that also threats some animals and plants’ habitats, causing the loss of species. Orangutan, Sumatran Elephant, Sumatran Tigers are those highlighted as “critically endangered” species in this article.

Conclusion

After gathering information about the negative and positive effects of palm oil, it can be concluded that although palm oil is essential to several institutions nationwide, it causes too many severe health issues for not only humans but for the environment as well. Unfortunately, farming palm oil can not come to a halt. Palm oil is essential to the economic success of several developing countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. However, it could be an even greater contributor to the economy if farming would be done by local farms instead of major corporations such as Nestle, Johnson & Johnson and Kellogg’s. We should still farm, produce, consume and use palm oil but there need to be drastic changes in the way we farm and produce palm oil in order to help the pros outweigh the cons. Sustainable palm oil is a viable option and can be made possible if farming was done not monoculturally, but cycled the way local farms do. Rules and regulations such as the ones made by the RSPO have taken steps in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go to ensure that the palm oil industry and environment can co-exist together.

 

 

References

ABOUT. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://theoilpalm.org/about/

Cohen, B. (2013, August 16). Health Effects of Palm Oil in the Diet. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/243901-health-effects-of-palm-oil-in-the-diet/

Do the right thing | RSPO Palm Oil Debate. (2017, May 19). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://www.rspo.org/about/palm-oil-debate/blog/do-the-right-thing

Palm Oil Benefits: Is Palm Oil Better Than Coconut Oil? (2017, April 04). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://draxe.com/benefits-of-palm-oil/

Palm oil. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/food/palm-oil

Palm oil – deforestation for everyday products. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/topics/palm-oil

Sustainable palm oil. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://www.rspo.org/about/sustainable-palm-oil

Vijay, V., Pimm, S. L., Jenkins, C. N., & Smith, S. J. (2016). The Impacts of Oil Palm on Recent Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4963098/

C. (n.d.). Addressing the Advantages and Disadvantages of Palm Oil Productivity & Promoting Sustainability (with images, tweet) · ChantellePri92. Retrieved May 19, 2017, from https://storify.com/ChantellePri92/palm-oil