Berita Arkib

30/08/2009 (Borneo Independent News Service) - In advance of a major international meeting about World Bank investments in palm oil, a consortium of indigenous peoples’, oil palm smallholders’, and non-governmental organisations is demanding the World Bank maintains its current freeze on funding the sector until it has a credible strategy to address the sector’s manifold problems.

29/08/2009 (Afrol News) - Liberian palm oil farmers will receive a major boost to their production following signing of a grant aimed at poor communities by United States African Development Foundation yesterday.

28/08/2009 (The Irrawaddy.org), Mae Sot - Ko Daung cried out in agony as he lay on a makeshift operating table in a corridor of the Mae Tao Clinic. A friend squatted next to him, offering his hand for support and a vest to grasp as the pain increased.

28/08/2009 (Deforestration Watch) - Gabe Mirkin MD writing in Dr Mirkin.com in tracing the history of the anti-palm oil lobbies writes: “In the 1980s, the American soybean industry was worried that foreign tropical oils would replace their oils and take money from the American farmer.”

27/08/2009 (The Ecologist.org) - The World Bank has admitted errors in its procedures for lending money and safeguarding against social and environmental abuses.

27/08/2009 (Philstar.com), Manila - A University of the Philippines professor has urged Filipino scientists to develop genetically modified coconut to increase the production of lauric acid, a substance found mainly in coconut oil and is used in making soaps, insecticides and cosmetics.

26/08/2009 (The Good Human) - They can claim that the palm oil they use in their chocolate is “green and sustainable” – but that doesn’t mean that it actually is. See, they are certified by GreenPalm, a certification system used by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to encourage farmers to produce sustainable palm oil. But only a tiny fraction of Cadbury’s entire chocolate production is even certified, as they have obtained certification for (only) 2,800 tonnes of palm oil in the past 11 months out of a total annual consumption of 40,000 tonnes. That’s only about 14% of the palm oil they use, but they have no problem claiming that their product lines are green and sustainably made. Even better? If you have that certification, it doesn’t really even mean anything at all – you might or might not be using truly sustainable palm oil. You can buy a certificate for yourself if you want to, for about $10.

26/08/2009 (The Economic Times), Mumbai - Edible oil may be the latest victim of India’s wayward monsoon. After pulses and sugar saw their prices shooting up, another essential commodity, edible oil, is expected to see its prices move up if monsoon and weather conditions in the US do not improve, say traders who are keenly watching the progress of rains.

25/08/2009 (The Star Online), Petaling Jaya - United Plantations Bhd posted 18.1% lower net profit to RM65.01mil in the second quarter ended June 30 on lower crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK) production, and low margins of its refinery divisions.

25/08/2009 (Dairy Reporter.com) - Greenpeace has attacked dairy giant Fonterra for using palm-based animal feed from cleared forests and for pushing an intensive farming model in New Zealand.

25/08/2009 (The Star) - PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s call for Felda, Felcra and Risda to form a consortium to jointly explore downstream projects and other mutual cooperations could not have come at a better time.

24/08/2009 (The Christian Sciences Monitor), TRIPA SWAMP, INDONESIA – The surveyor mapping the rain forest below was so shocked that he couldn’t speak. From the air it looked as if someone had bombed with white phosphorus. Plumes of smoke rose from the earth where 150-foot hardwoods lay like toothpicks. Nearby, formations of oil palm plantations advanced, precise as an army.