25/06/2010 (Palm Hungger.org) - The Economist, in an article entitled “The campaign against palm oil” published on 24th June 2010, carries on a detailed analysis of the reasons for the anti-palm oil campaigns of green groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FOE).

The article traced the humble beginnings of palm oil in 1848, when it was discovered that the oil palm, a native of West Africa, grew well in the Far East. The Economist notes “Its giant bunches of red fruits are rich in oil that proved useful in soap and later as a lubricant for steam engines. Demand grew, and plantations sprouted in Malaysia in the 1930s. As the industry matured, cultivation spread to Indonesia. These two countries today produce 90% of the world’s palm oil”.

The Economist points out: “These days it is used in a vast array of food and consumer products, from peanut butter, margarine and ice cream to lipstick and shaving foam. Palm oil makes shampoos and soaps more creamy. WWF, an environmental group, says it is used in 50% of all packaged supermarket products. It is also a common cooking oil across Asia. It is becoming more popular as a biofuel. Laws that encourage the use of biofuels are adding to demand.”

As I look at the list of patents recently filed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, it becomes clear why palm oil has become the target of shrill attacks by competing oils and their attack dogs – green groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FOE).

A bewildering array totaling 51 new technologies, processes and new improved innovative services to improve the yield and extraction of palm oil had been offered up to the investing public to take up.

Some of the new patents include new biofuel formulas such as the cold soak filtration technology for palm biodiesel as well as a new metho of producing palm biodiesel with reduced fuel filter blocking potential.

A new stearoyl ACP desaturase gene from jessenia bataua for high oleate oil manipulation and a first generation embryogenic markers (GEM) for tissue culture amenity are also offered.

What was most exciting was the extraction of palm oil phenolics as a source of shikimic acid, which was a collaboration between researchers from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Shikimic acid which is currently extracted from the star aniseed is used in the manufacture of tamiflu!

In fact, when you study the breadth of the new innovations on palm oil, nothing appears to be sacred. Even cream cheese analogues have been formulated using palm oil and apparently, you can’t tell the difference from the real thing.  The best thing is that the cream cheese analogues have a better health profile as palm oil is used. Imagine chowing down on a cream cheese substitute that’s actually better for your heart as it is packed with anti-oxidants such as toco-trienols, Co enzyme Q10 and beta-carotenes.

Needless to say, the oleo chemical applications of palm oil are extensive and even personal care products like hair care and body hygiene can use palm oil to great advantage. What is covered here is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Economist is right. Palm oil is certainly used in a vast array of food and consumer products.

If we subject the frantic anti-palm oil hype emanating from the green groups to the cold examination of hard facts, it is certainly not inconceivable that the source of funds for all these frenetic anti-palm oil activism by green groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth would have come from parties that would want palm oil’s inexorable growth on the world market to be checked. It is easy now to understand why the most sustainable edible oil in the world is subjected to such libel and lies.

There is now incontrovertible evidence that the EU is funding up to 70% of the annual budgets of green groups like FOE and consequently, wittingly or unwittingly their anti-palm oil campaigns. This has raised the ugly specter that green groups are used to erect trade barriers against palm oil in the guise of environmental concerns!