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- Posted February 13, 2013 by
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The European Commission's act of risible nonsense on Palm Oil
There is a lot of risible nonsense in the world these days, but there’s nothing more risible than the disingenuous guff on palm oil coming from the Environmental Directorate of the European Commission.
Palm oil is a popular ingredient in many of the everyday products that we all enjoy including margarine, cream cheese, and chocolate. In recent years several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), such as Greenpeace, have started to voice their concerns quite loudly about the effects that the increase in use of palm oil is having on the world’s rainforests.
The many anti-palm oil campaigns carried out by various green groups appears to be getting secret funding from the EC, in what many believe to be an act of subterfuge. Why would the EC resort to such tactics? In our view, it is most likely an effort to try and protect the EU’s own oilseed industries such sunflower and rapeseed oils, which cannot really compete in the open market with the hyper yielding palm oil.
Lots of evidence pointing to underhand tactics from European governments have been surfacing over the years including a report published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest entitled Cruel Oil. This report which went into some detail about palm oil production’s harmful effects on the rainforest made some largely unsubstantiated claims, but what’s interesting is the fact that the Center which produced the report was being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for close to 70 per cent of its annual funds.
That was just one highlight in a long list of evidence that points to the EC’s involvement in driving this hype and scaremongering around palm oil. As more layers get peeled back on this story, it is becoming more and more apparent that the European Commission has not only been acting in violation of its own competition laws but in a downright dishonorable fashion as it has been pointed out by Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo that the EC was fully cognizant of the fact that the anti-palm oil campaigns were based on “manufactured” and false evidence!
It was Libertiamo that blew the entire intended scam by the EC wide open when they published an expose entitled ““Taxpayer Funding, NGO Collusion and Manufactured Crises: A Case Study of Malaysia and Palm Oil,” Libertiamo points out that since 2005, the EC has provided nearly €5million (MYR 19.7 million) to the World Wildlife Fund and €4 million (MYR 15,8 million) to Friends of the Earth. Climate Action Network (CAN) also received nearly €1 million (MYR 3.9 million) in the past two years alone.
“…the criticisms against the industry are regularly based on claims manufactured by EU NGOs that are not backed up by hard evidence,” notes Libertiamo!
Libertiamo points out, “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…”
This staggering act of bad faith by the EC and European governments certainly do not speak highly value systems and at least, of their sense of right and wrong! Could this clear violation of the EU’s own competition laws be a sign of a commitment to protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oilseed industries such as or is it a sign of something far deeper – an endemic moral weakness in the offices of the officials entrusted with executing the policies of the Union itself?
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
Palm oil is a popular ingredient in many of the everyday products that we all enjoy including margarine, cream cheese, and chocolate. In recent years several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s), such as Greenpeace, have started to voice their concerns quite loudly about the effects that the increase in use of palm oil is having on the world’s rainforests.
The many anti-palm oil campaigns carried out by various green groups appears to be getting secret funding from the EC, in what many believe to be an act of subterfuge. Why would the EC resort to such tactics? In our view, it is most likely an effort to try and protect the EU’s own oilseed industries such sunflower and rapeseed oils, which cannot really compete in the open market with the hyper yielding palm oil.
Lots of evidence pointing to underhand tactics from European governments have been surfacing over the years including a report published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest entitled Cruel Oil. This report which went into some detail about palm oil production’s harmful effects on the rainforest made some largely unsubstantiated claims, but what’s interesting is the fact that the Center which produced the report was being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for close to 70 per cent of its annual funds.
That was just one highlight in a long list of evidence that points to the EC’s involvement in driving this hype and scaremongering around palm oil. As more layers get peeled back on this story, it is becoming more and more apparent that the European Commission has not only been acting in violation of its own competition laws but in a downright dishonorable fashion as it has been pointed out by Italian civil libertarian group, Libertiamo that the EC was fully cognizant of the fact that the anti-palm oil campaigns were based on “manufactured” and false evidence!
It was Libertiamo that blew the entire intended scam by the EC wide open when they published an expose entitled ““Taxpayer Funding, NGO Collusion and Manufactured Crises: A Case Study of Malaysia and Palm Oil,” Libertiamo points out that since 2005, the EC has provided nearly €5million (MYR 19.7 million) to the World Wildlife Fund and €4 million (MYR 15,8 million) to Friends of the Earth. Climate Action Network (CAN) also received nearly €1 million (MYR 3.9 million) in the past two years alone.
“…the criticisms against the industry are regularly based on claims manufactured by EU NGOs that are not backed up by hard evidence,” notes Libertiamo!
Libertiamo points out, “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…”
This staggering act of bad faith by the EC and European governments certainly do not speak highly value systems and at least, of their sense of right and wrong! Could this clear violation of the EU’s own competition laws be a sign of a commitment to protect the EU’s own indigenous edible oilseed industries such as or is it a sign of something far deeper – an endemic moral weakness in the offices of the officials entrusted with executing the policies of the Union itself?
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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- palm
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