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Palm oil is a commodity that generally evokes images of mass deforestation, human-rights violations and dying orangutans. In Indonesia and Malaysia, where some 85% of the world's palm oil is produced, more than 16 million hectares of land — rainforest, peat bogs and old rubber plantations — have been taken over by oil palm, and there is no sign of the industry slowing down.
Despite its bad reputation, oil palm is the most productive oil crop in the world. Oilseed rape (canola) currently produces only about one-sixth of the oil per hectare — soya bean only one-tenth. But oil-palm plantations still aren't getting as much as they could out of their plants.
The main problem is that genetic and epigenetic variables can cause some palms to underproduce. And because oil palms mature slowly, growers typically don't know for three to four years whether the trees they plant will turn out to be star performers or worthless wood.
That's where Orion comes in. When the leaf punches sent out around southeast Asia return, Orion technicians process the disc of greenery within and can send growers a report on the quality of their young plants. Lakey predicts that, if adopted on a large scale, the test could raise industry revenue by about US$4 billion per year. And, importantly, it could do so without expanding plantations. "We can get more oil for an equivalent area of land — this could help take the pressure off deforestation," Lakey says.
The world's most hated crop is not kale?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16 2017, @02:37PM (9 children)
Most of us outside tropical regions wouldn't even know of palm oil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16 2017, @03:55PM (2 children)
I've never seen it in any recipes or mentioned in restaurants. I think I saw a few bottles of it in the grocery store but I pretty much only use olive oil now for cooking anyway and occasionally peanut oil for anything requiring temperatures too high for olive oil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16 2017, @04:42PM (1 child)
Every restaurant uses Palm Oil. Or more precisely partially-hydrated palm oil.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16 2017, @05:48PM
*partially-hydrogenated palm kernel oil
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Thursday March 16 2017, @04:11PM (5 children)
I suppose that's true of anyone who never reads the ingredient list on their food, or cooks everything from raw ingredients. Palm oil is used extensively in processed foods.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 16 2017, @05:23PM (4 children)
Even if you read the label it can be difficult to spot since they're allowed to call it 'glycerin,' 'stearic acid,' or even just 'vegetable oil.'
Products with palm oil [schusterinstituteinvestigations.org]
A few examples:
Oreos, Cheez-Its, Coffee-Mate, Nutella...
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday March 16 2017, @05:51PM (1 child)
If that's true, then someone needs to call out both them and whoever is allowing it on charges of fraud, because both glycerine and stearic acid have definite meanings, and palm oil is neither.
If instead though they're producing stearic acid and/or glycerine from palm oil (both are synthesized from oils), then things are a lot murkier... to the point where I'd probably have to come down on their side. There's a whole lot of synthetic chemistry incorporated into processed foods, and having to list the all the feedstock from which it was created would make the ingredients list far, far longer, with dubious benefit. If you're using stearic acid in your recipe then, assuming adequate purification, it doesn't really make any nutritional difference whether it started out as palm oil, pig fat, or petroleum, the only difference is in the nature of the remaining impurities. (not sure it can actually be made from petroleum but, if so, then the stearic acid molecule produced would be indistinguishable from those produced from any other source. Well, except for carbon isotope ratios at least...)
There's much to be said for sourcing labels, but thy have essentially nothing to do with *nutrition*, which is the focus of existing labeling laws.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 16 2017, @07:22PM
You're right, it's more like the 2nd option. "Allowed to call it" was bad phrasing on my part.
(Score: 2) by jmoschner on Thursday March 16 2017, @10:12PM (1 child)
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has an app that lets you scan the barcode of a product and it will tell you if the product contains responsibly sourced palm oil. It isn't perfect but is a good start.
Sustainable Palm Oil Shopping
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sustainable-palm-oil-shopping/id671945416?mt=8 [apple.com]
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.venturedna.palmoil&hl=en [google.com]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday March 18 2017, @07:59AM
Holding a bottle of water against this device: "This product does not contain responsibly sourced palm oil". ;-)
I really hope they instead tell you whether the product does contain palm oil that was not responsibly sourced.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.