In a statement, Cargill calls the lie to the wild claims by the Rainforest Action Network that the company had destroyed rainforests in Indonesia for its oil palm plantations. Deforestation Watch is pleased to publish the statement in full.

Cargill is a leader in growing and developing sustainable oil palm and we are working with well-respected environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including WWF and Fauna & Flora International, to assist us and to support the sustainable development of palm oil in Indonesia.

 

The world demand for palm oil has soared in the last two decades, first for its use in food, consumer products and more recently as the raw material for the production of biofuel.

Demand for palm oil is on the move as biofuel and biodiesel demand is growing steadily. The main thing is to inprove the oil yield from palm oil plant. For this purpose strong research and development efforts are going on across the major palm oil producing countries.

It was Daniel J. Boorstin, winner of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in History who famously said:

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge!”

How apt when we apply this to the recent call by the Australian Heart Foundation for food manufacturers to be forced to label all products containing palm oil to “help push down the nation's soaring levels of saturated fat consumption”.