CNN’s “Going Green” segment just reported on the environmental threat posed by the worldwide demand for palm oil:
(CNN) In supermarkets across the world products containing palm oil regularly fly off the shelves — soaps, chocolates, margarine, cosmetics.
Most consumers have no idea that they contain palm oil which often hides behind the label of “vegetable oil” and even less of a clue that conservationists are singling it out as being one of the main driving forces behind deforestation.
It is fast growing with high yields — global demand now tops 40 million tonnes a year and is central to the economies of Malaysia and Indonesia.
But the rampant tearing down of Indonesia’s natural forests have made this tropical nation the world’s third largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Already, 85 percent of Sumatra’s forests are gone and what is left is disappearing at an alarming rate.
Sumatran orangutans are expected to be the first great ape to become extinct — due to the loss of their natural habitat, just one of many species threatened because of unchecked deforestation.
Sorry about your home forest, Clyde.
Hmm, it sounds like if we want to save our primate cousins and the atmosphere we breathe, we need to come up with a fast-growing, high-yield seed oil crop that doesn’t lead to deforestation and acts as a huge carbon sink for greenhouse gases.
Let me give you a moment to see if you can think of one off the top of your head.
I decided to look up the website of the American Palm Oil Council to see what sort of benefits we get from deforesting Indonesia and wiping out an ape species so we can have Valentine’s chocolates. For comparison, I got some information from various sources on hemp seed oil.
| Palm Oil | Hemp Seed Oil | |
| Cholesterol | None | None |
| Fats | No Trans-Fats Many Essential Fatty Acids |
No Trans-Fats Best source of Essential Fatty Acids |
| Cooking | Semi-solid at room temperature, good for frying | Liquid at room temperature, not good for frying |
| Odor/Taste | None | slightly nutty flavor, no odor |
| Anti-oxidants? | Beta-Carotene Vitamin E (richest source) |
Omega-3 EFAs & Omega-6 EFAs (in the perfect ratio required for human health) |
| Calories | 1 gram = 9 Kcal of energy | 1 gram = 9 Kcal of energy |
| Food products | shortening, cooking oil, margarine, confections, ice cream, frying oil. | nutrition bars, cookies, breads, salad dressings, granola, nut butter, chips, pasta, and cold-pressed oil products. |
| Non-food products | soaps, plastics, drilling mud, diesel substitute, candles, lotions, body oils, shampoos, skin care products, rubber and cleaning products. | lubricants, paints, inks, diesel substitute, plastics, soaps, candles, lotions, body oils, cleaning products, shampoos and detergents |
| Yield | 5,950 liters of oil per hectare | 363 liters of oil per hectare, but also 25 tons of stalks for industrial fiber uses, seed flour for food |
| Environmental impact | 85% of Sumatran rainforests destroyed Potential extinction of orangutans |
Much wider range of cultivation, no need to cut down rainforests Acts as natural “carbon sink” to rid the atmosphere of greenhouse gases |
Hemp seed oil can’t completely replace palm oil. Palm oil produces the most oil per hectare of any seed oil crop and is a better frying oil than hemp seed oil. But obviously hemp seed oil can make products like soap, shampoo, plastics, and biodiesel as well or better than palm oil, with the additional benefit of providing stalks for fiber, seeds for food, and flowers for medicine. Hemp requires few pesticides and no herbicides and we don’t have to wipe out any orangutans!
