Palming off livelihoods?: The misguided campaign against palm oil

by Tim Wilson, October 31, 2009

Opposition to palm oil seems to have reached fever pitch in Australia. Celebrity television campaigns, guerilla activists and the predictable environmental lobby seem hell bent on getting palm oil out of our food and off our supermarket shelves. Why?

Well, these are the issues addressed in Sustainable Development’s new research paper, Palming off livelihoods?: The misguided campaign against palm oil.

Palm oil has become one of the world’s most popular edible oils in the last 25 years, and its affordability has made it a popular additive in cosmetics and other non-food and fuel products requiring oils and binders.

Palm oil is primarily a product amenable to development in the humid tropics. Since most countries with a humid, tropical climate are still developing its production is one of the essential industries to boost GDP and the economic lot of the poor.

Critics have gone so far as to demand that its use be boycotted or banned, with limitations placed upon its advertising and marketing. They have taken a particularly aggressive stance against suggestions that its development or use can be sustainable.

From a broader perspective, this antagonistic approach only risks creating further tension in international trade as countries try and seek conclusions in the WTO to increase access for developing world products into developed markets, like Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the European Union.

And it is a South-South traded product as well. Much of the developing world – India and China in particular – is a major consumer of palm oil. And since palm oil is a cheap and reliable food source, these growing economies are not about to do without them. Oil consumption in the developing world is double that of the developed world and it is increasing at a rate about a third faster, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization. Any ban on palm oil won’t stop overall consumption, but will likely increase sales to developing countries who’ll take advantage of any price reductions because it is in less demand in rich countries.

Policy makers and consumers need to sort through the myths on palm oil, and recognise that a proper analysis of the concerns of activists aren’t caused by palm oil, they are caused by poverty alleviation. Scrapping palm oil won’t stop the poor wanting to lift themselves up. They’ll just grow a different commodity instead. The best thing consumers can do is promote consumption of sustainable palm oil, not banning it all together.

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