In this excellent article from BBC Future, we look at how the world can reduce its reliance and addiction to Palm Oil.
I absolutely hate the stuff and although its the cheapest cooking oil there is here in Thailand, I refuse to buy it, always using sunflower oil, but despite this, I still indirectly use gallons of the stuff a day in Bio Fuels and almost every food stuff I eat. To be fair, its a miracle oil for many reasons but it's directly responsible for trashing the environment.
Why?
It grows so easily in the Tropics and is very profitable and subsequently, huge amounts of rain forest in Indonesia and Malaysia have been destroyed and that has caused the decimation of the orangutan population and turned what was once bio-diverse rain forests into single species wastelands.
So whats the alternative?
The race is on but at the forefront are oils derived from insects to be used to replace palm oil in animal feeds and for human and fuel, algae which is easy and fast to culture and thats the problem, other alternatives developed are expensive....
Just read the article, its excellent, and later I will post another one that provides more detail on why palm oil is so damaging.
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