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- Posted October 22, 2012 by
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Palm Oil: The European Commission and the French con!
Beautiful murals are exhibited every year on the walls of the Mitchell Corn Palace. Scenes include birds in flight, Conestoga wagons heading West, Native American teepees, and rural settings. There is one peculiarity about these murals though—they are made out of corn, seeds, and grasses. The outside murals are replaced each year with a new theme, partly because hungry birds eat from them.
Just like these murals, the powers that be that decree that palm oil should be reined in at all costs to stop its explosive march towards global market leadership have had to change their tune from time to time.
First, in the eighties, the oddly named Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) launched spurious campaigns alleging that palm oil is largely saturated fat and consequently bad for heart health. When tons of scientific studies showed that the antioxidant and polyphenol-packed palm oil was in fact heart friendly as the saturated fatty acids in the sn-1 and -3 position (typically found in palm oil) has very different biological consequences than animal fats such as lard and milk fats as the saturated fats are primarily found in the sn-2 position! (Vide: Donald J. McNamara, PhD: “Palm Oil and Heart Health: A case of Manipulated Perception and Misuse of Science” 240S Vol 29 No. 3(s) Journal of the American College of Nutrition), this anti-palm oil premise collapsed!
However in 2005, CSPI published a “report” called “Cruel Oil” in which they made wild and unsubstantiated claims that palm oil cultivation was causing massive deforestation and threatening the extinction of biodiversity such as the orangutan.
The report interestingly, was prepared with the help of Aid Environment listed as partners with Hivos — a Dutch based civil society group with direct links to campaigns in Indonesia. Hivos, in turn, is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for close to 70% of its annual 100m Euro budget.
It wasn’t until 2010 when a research paper was presented by researchers Caroline Boin and Andrea Marchesetti entitled “Friends of the EU.”
(http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu) pointing out that it was the European Commission (EC), through its environmental ministries that was funding up to 70% of the operating budgets of FOE EU, that the first cracks of an elaborate and covertly planned series of subversive palm oil campaigns began to emerge.
However, Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo finally blew wide open the moral porosity afflicting the EC when they revealed that these palm oil campaigns are "funded by the Office of the Environment Directorate of the EC, ostensibly to improve environmental practices in developing countries". In reality, the millions poured into these palm oil campaigns, noted Libertiamo, were designed to protect the EU's indigenous edible oilseed industries like rapeseed and sunflower which are hapless and unable to compete with the hyper yielding palm oil! To make matters worse, the EC is aware that the anti-palm oil campaigns, conducted by surrogate green groups, are based on "manufactured and false evidence"!
Now, the dirty tentacles of the EC have reached France as French manufacturers and retailers alike have started clambering over each other to print “Palm Oil Free” labels onto their products and loudly announced plans to eliminate palm oil from their product list. The rationale touted is of course, the well worn and now disproven mantra of palm oil causing such massive deforestation that it threatens the extinction of the orangutans.
However, the bald truth suppressed at the heart of the current French campaign is that palm oil is probably the most sustainable of all oilseed crops as one single hectare planted can yield a staggering 4-6 metric tons of edible oil, nearly 6 times that of its nearest competitor, rape seed which is France's second most important crop, 8 times that of sunflower and 10 times that of soybean.
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
Just like these murals, the powers that be that decree that palm oil should be reined in at all costs to stop its explosive march towards global market leadership have had to change their tune from time to time.
First, in the eighties, the oddly named Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) launched spurious campaigns alleging that palm oil is largely saturated fat and consequently bad for heart health. When tons of scientific studies showed that the antioxidant and polyphenol-packed palm oil was in fact heart friendly as the saturated fatty acids in the sn-1 and -3 position (typically found in palm oil) has very different biological consequences than animal fats such as lard and milk fats as the saturated fats are primarily found in the sn-2 position! (Vide: Donald J. McNamara, PhD: “Palm Oil and Heart Health: A case of Manipulated Perception and Misuse of Science” 240S Vol 29 No. 3(s) Journal of the American College of Nutrition), this anti-palm oil premise collapsed!
However in 2005, CSPI published a “report” called “Cruel Oil” in which they made wild and unsubstantiated claims that palm oil cultivation was causing massive deforestation and threatening the extinction of biodiversity such as the orangutan.
The report interestingly, was prepared with the help of Aid Environment listed as partners with Hivos — a Dutch based civil society group with direct links to campaigns in Indonesia. Hivos, in turn, is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for close to 70% of its annual 100m Euro budget.
It wasn’t until 2010 when a research paper was presented by researchers Caroline Boin and Andrea Marchesetti entitled “Friends of the EU.”
(http://www.policynetwork.net/accountability/publication/friends-eu) pointing out that it was the European Commission (EC), through its environmental ministries that was funding up to 70% of the operating budgets of FOE EU, that the first cracks of an elaborate and covertly planned series of subversive palm oil campaigns began to emerge.
However, Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo finally blew wide open the moral porosity afflicting the EC when they revealed that these palm oil campaigns are "funded by the Office of the Environment Directorate of the EC, ostensibly to improve environmental practices in developing countries". In reality, the millions poured into these palm oil campaigns, noted Libertiamo, were designed to protect the EU's indigenous edible oilseed industries like rapeseed and sunflower which are hapless and unable to compete with the hyper yielding palm oil! To make matters worse, the EC is aware that the anti-palm oil campaigns, conducted by surrogate green groups, are based on "manufactured and false evidence"!
Now, the dirty tentacles of the EC have reached France as French manufacturers and retailers alike have started clambering over each other to print “Palm Oil Free” labels onto their products and loudly announced plans to eliminate palm oil from their product list. The rationale touted is of course, the well worn and now disproven mantra of palm oil causing such massive deforestation that it threatens the extinction of the orangutans.
However, the bald truth suppressed at the heart of the current French campaign is that palm oil is probably the most sustainable of all oilseed crops as one single hectare planted can yield a staggering 4-6 metric tons of edible oil, nearly 6 times that of its nearest competitor, rape seed which is France's second most important crop, 8 times that of sunflower and 10 times that of soybean.
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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- hugger
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