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- Posted January 28, 2013 by
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Palm Oil: The EU Commission's treachery on Africa!
I was in ballet class one weekend watching my daughter Caroline go through her paces. Whilst waiting for her to finish her practice, I alternated from flipping through a magazine and observing a little boy whose valiant efforts in attempting a dance exercise caught my eye. This involved jumping over a rolled-up gym mat. His first attempt resulted in him bouncing off this hurdle. For a moment he sat on the floor stunned, and then he began to cry. Immediately, his father darted out to help him up and begin soothing him with words of encouragement. Then, holding his hand, the young father then ran with him until he successfully jumped over the rolled-up mat. The encouragement was all it took for the kid to clear that hurdle.
When I contemplate on the actions of the European Commission (EC) in funding green groups who carry out anti-palm oil campaigns based largely on manufactured evidence, I often wonder whether they have the moral character of the young father to encourage a third world commodity rather than to seek to destroy it?
Publicly and sanctimoniously, the EC threw the book at corporations like Microsoft Corp. for violating the EU’s very stringent Competition Laws, the EU’s own version of US anti-trust regulations to encourage free competition.
Privately and surreptitiously, however, the EC itself has through its Environmental Directorate been merrily violating the EU’s own Competition Laws and WTO Rules by pouring in funds to green group surrogates like Friends of the Earth, Climate Action Network and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ostensibly to improve environmental practices in developing countries. Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo in an explosive expose points out that in reality, the EC’s funding of the aforementioned green groups were all cynically calculated to prop up their indigenous edible oilseed crops like rapeseed and sunflower, which are unable to compete on an equal footing with the rampantly higher yielding palm oil!
Noting the predilection of these NGOs to make spectacular claims, Libertiamo observed that one of the most commonly used is a statistic that in SE Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 football fields are deforested every hour for palm oil plantations, a claim that has been exposed as a significant distortion of facts by the FAO’s recent "State of the Forests 2011" report which observes that whilst rates of deforestation between 1990-2000 were high at a time of significant development in SE Asia, the trend had reversed dramatically between 2000-2010. Deforestation rates during this latter period "more than halved, making the NGO claims of rampant expansion entirely false!"
What the officials in the EC did not consider is the irreparable harm that they will wrought on the livelihood of tens of thousands of South East Asian small farmers who eke out a living cultivating palm oil and millions more who depend on the upstream and downstream production activities associated with it, in their over-exuberance to erect artificial trade barriers against palm oil. To protect the EU’s own edible oilseed industries, perhaps these officials could not care less that, unlike other edible oilseeds, 40% of global palm oil production is produced by small farmers!
What these crooks wearing the cloak of officialdom in the EC obviously did not consider is that the deforestation issues long used by the EC against palm oil would come back to bite them! Perhaps, the economic calamity that is befalling the EU is just poetic justice or karma!
To make matters worse, the EC now appears to have switched their attacks to Africa! If the gravamen of the charge against the EC was that it was unconscionable for the economic harm that they wrought on smallholders in SE Asia, the attacks against Africa is even more reprehensible!
In truth the broadsides launched against African palm oil by the EC’s surrogate attacks dogs, Greenpeace and the WWF along with some Africa based environmental groups do not surprise. It followed the well worn and overused lies that palm oil caused massive deforestation and land dislocation that displaced local communities that was used unsuccessfully for so long and so intensely against SE Asian palm oil!
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
When I contemplate on the actions of the European Commission (EC) in funding green groups who carry out anti-palm oil campaigns based largely on manufactured evidence, I often wonder whether they have the moral character of the young father to encourage a third world commodity rather than to seek to destroy it?
Publicly and sanctimoniously, the EC threw the book at corporations like Microsoft Corp. for violating the EU’s very stringent Competition Laws, the EU’s own version of US anti-trust regulations to encourage free competition.
Privately and surreptitiously, however, the EC itself has through its Environmental Directorate been merrily violating the EU’s own Competition Laws and WTO Rules by pouring in funds to green group surrogates like Friends of the Earth, Climate Action Network and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ostensibly to improve environmental practices in developing countries. Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo in an explosive expose points out that in reality, the EC’s funding of the aforementioned green groups were all cynically calculated to prop up their indigenous edible oilseed crops like rapeseed and sunflower, which are unable to compete on an equal footing with the rampantly higher yielding palm oil!
Noting the predilection of these NGOs to make spectacular claims, Libertiamo observed that one of the most commonly used is a statistic that in SE Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 football fields are deforested every hour for palm oil plantations, a claim that has been exposed as a significant distortion of facts by the FAO’s recent "State of the Forests 2011" report which observes that whilst rates of deforestation between 1990-2000 were high at a time of significant development in SE Asia, the trend had reversed dramatically between 2000-2010. Deforestation rates during this latter period "more than halved, making the NGO claims of rampant expansion entirely false!"
What the officials in the EC did not consider is the irreparable harm that they will wrought on the livelihood of tens of thousands of South East Asian small farmers who eke out a living cultivating palm oil and millions more who depend on the upstream and downstream production activities associated with it, in their over-exuberance to erect artificial trade barriers against palm oil. To protect the EU’s own edible oilseed industries, perhaps these officials could not care less that, unlike other edible oilseeds, 40% of global palm oil production is produced by small farmers!
What these crooks wearing the cloak of officialdom in the EC obviously did not consider is that the deforestation issues long used by the EC against palm oil would come back to bite them! Perhaps, the economic calamity that is befalling the EU is just poetic justice or karma!
To make matters worse, the EC now appears to have switched their attacks to Africa! If the gravamen of the charge against the EC was that it was unconscionable for the economic harm that they wrought on smallholders in SE Asia, the attacks against Africa is even more reprehensible!
In truth the broadsides launched against African palm oil by the EC’s surrogate attacks dogs, Greenpeace and the WWF along with some Africa based environmental groups do not surprise. It followed the well worn and overused lies that palm oil caused massive deforestation and land dislocation that displaced local communities that was used unsuccessfully for so long and so intensely against SE Asian palm oil!
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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