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- Posted September 30, 2012 by
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African Palm Oil: The European Commission’s faulty GPS
It wasn’t too long ago when my wife’s car needed to be towed. When I explained to the man at the towing company how to find our home, I instructed him to tell the driver not to follow his global positioning system (GPS). Because another street with the same name as ours was separated from our home address by a field, special instructions were necessary. He assured me he would pass on my directions.
As I stood in the driveway wondering where the tow truck was, the driver called and said he had followed his GPS but couldn’t find my street number. Hmmmm. I repeated the directions I had given before, and the tow truck was there in no time.
In many ways, palm oil critics appear to have blindly called out the commodity whilst ignoring directions and pointers from people who should know better. However, the truth is far more sinister than that!
Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo, in a study of the actions of the European Commission (EC) and their secret role in the palm oil wars suggests as much. In a report called “Taxpayer Funding, NGO Collusion and Manufactured Crises: A Case Study of Malaysia and Palm Oil.”, points out that the real reason behind the EC’s bizarre funding of environmental NGOs to carry out vicious anti-palm oil campaigns that they are aware are based on false and manufactured evidence is to erect artificial trade barriers against palm oil to prevent competition against the EU’s own edible oil industries such as rapeseed and sunflower oil!
Says Libertiamo: “These green NGOs have become peddlers of half truths to drive donations and attract government largesse. And donor governments support them, in the interest of uncompetitive domestic industries and neo colonial ambitions!”
This is corroborated by the passing of draconian measures such as the EU RED with its clear manipulation of emission savings math to stop palm oil from being used as a biofuel!
That by itself is already a blot on the good name of some of the prominent European countries which are signatories of the WTO treaty, but what really disappoints is that Libertiamo points out that most of the anti-palm oil campaigns are based, at best, on “manufactured evidence”!
Perhaps the most serious charge that Libertiamo makes is the charge that European governments are spending significant sums ostensibly to engage in environmental advocacy in the developing world. In reality, these palm oil campaigns are designed to protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oil industries which are hapless and unable to compete on a level playing field with palm oil!
It also noted that Libertiamo charges that this advocacy is intended and designed to hinder economic development of the targeted countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, to the detriment of the local population.
If we juxtapose the above expose to the current rumblings against palm oil cultivation in Africa by Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and other green groups, a familiar pattern can be discerned with the dirty fingerprints of the EC found all over these African conflict driven headlines; hitting a REPEAT button that is about to break from overuse, with a slight slant – palm oil is causing deforestation and threatening the dislocation of land from local communities!
The target has shifted, but the objective of the EC is still the same. Protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oil industries such as sunflower and rapeseed oil come hell or high water, violating the EU’s own Competition laws and WTO Rules, and even if it is at the expense of the economic progress of the countries targeted, or the livelihood of the local plantation workers!
Why should the EC fear palm oil so much? Simple, a single hectare of palm oil produces an average of 4.16 metric tons of edible oil whilst the yield per hectare of sunflower is just a miniscule 0.53 and rapeseed 0.69 metric tons!
Note: About Inc Society of PalmHugger: We are made up of professionals and individuals with a great passion for the truth.
We are biologists, creative designers, engineers, business men and women, professional tennis players, stay-at-home moms, retirees, college students, filmmakers, journalists, communication experts. You name it!
Our goals are all the same – to advance the cause of truth through better and wider dissemination of true palm oil environmental news and views, assisting in CSR initiatives, or developing programmes for advocacy and lobbying of palm oil environmental matters, always with an emphasis on truth.
Who we are not: We are not politically linked to any political parties. We are also not donor nor profit driven. Every single cent raised through our initiatives are channeled back to fund Palmhugger programmes that require financial assistance. www.Palmhugger.org
As I stood in the driveway wondering where the tow truck was, the driver called and said he had followed his GPS but couldn’t find my street number. Hmmmm. I repeated the directions I had given before, and the tow truck was there in no time.
In many ways, palm oil critics appear to have blindly called out the commodity whilst ignoring directions and pointers from people who should know better. However, the truth is far more sinister than that!
Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo, in a study of the actions of the European Commission (EC) and their secret role in the palm oil wars suggests as much. In a report called “Taxpayer Funding, NGO Collusion and Manufactured Crises: A Case Study of Malaysia and Palm Oil.”, points out that the real reason behind the EC’s bizarre funding of environmental NGOs to carry out vicious anti-palm oil campaigns that they are aware are based on false and manufactured evidence is to erect artificial trade barriers against palm oil to prevent competition against the EU’s own edible oil industries such as rapeseed and sunflower oil!
Says Libertiamo: “These green NGOs have become peddlers of half truths to drive donations and attract government largesse. And donor governments support them, in the interest of uncompetitive domestic industries and neo colonial ambitions!”
This is corroborated by the passing of draconian measures such as the EU RED with its clear manipulation of emission savings math to stop palm oil from being used as a biofuel!
That by itself is already a blot on the good name of some of the prominent European countries which are signatories of the WTO treaty, but what really disappoints is that Libertiamo points out that most of the anti-palm oil campaigns are based, at best, on “manufactured evidence”!
Perhaps the most serious charge that Libertiamo makes is the charge that European governments are spending significant sums ostensibly to engage in environmental advocacy in the developing world. In reality, these palm oil campaigns are designed to protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oil industries which are hapless and unable to compete on a level playing field with palm oil!
It also noted that Libertiamo charges that this advocacy is intended and designed to hinder economic development of the targeted countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, to the detriment of the local population.
If we juxtapose the above expose to the current rumblings against palm oil cultivation in Africa by Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) and other green groups, a familiar pattern can be discerned with the dirty fingerprints of the EC found all over these African conflict driven headlines; hitting a REPEAT button that is about to break from overuse, with a slight slant – palm oil is causing deforestation and threatening the dislocation of land from local communities!
The target has shifted, but the objective of the EC is still the same. Protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oil industries such as sunflower and rapeseed oil come hell or high water, violating the EU’s own Competition laws and WTO Rules, and even if it is at the expense of the economic progress of the countries targeted, or the livelihood of the local plantation workers!
Why should the EC fear palm oil so much? Simple, a single hectare of palm oil produces an average of 4.16 metric tons of edible oil whilst the yield per hectare of sunflower is just a miniscule 0.53 and rapeseed 0.69 metric tons!
Note: About Inc Society of PalmHugger: We are made up of professionals and individuals with a great passion for the truth.
We are biologists, creative designers, engineers, business men and women, professional tennis players, stay-at-home moms, retirees, college students, filmmakers, journalists, communication experts. You name it!
Our goals are all the same – to advance the cause of truth through better and wider dissemination of true palm oil environmental news and views, assisting in CSR initiatives, or developing programmes for advocacy and lobbying of palm oil environmental matters, always with an emphasis on truth.
Who we are not: We are not politically linked to any political parties. We are also not donor nor profit driven. Every single cent raised through our initiatives are channeled back to fund Palmhugger programmes that require financial assistance. www.Palmhugger.org
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