Whilst we, at Palmhugger.org, do not begrudge the zoo their fund raising activities, the zoo gave their game away on this one as as at the time of writing, the zoo has made no attempt to avail itself of a US$7 million Wildlife Conservation matching grant launched by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC).

It’s easy to launch anti-palm oil campaigns it would appear but not quite as convenient when the zoo has to put its money where its mouth is, as in putting up an equivalent amount for the MPOC matching grant. Suddenly, the plight of the orangutans do not appear to be quite as urgent, important or exigent when the Melbourne Zoo has to put up its own funds to qualify for the matching grant. What utter hypocrites!

As a matter of further interest Shenaaz Khan, the Australian House of Representatives Economic Committee had recommended that the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling Palm Oil) Bill 2010 be rejected not out of a whim.

It’s because they have heard representations from various stakeholders and are better informed on the issue than mouth frothing environmental types who, like Melbourne Zoo have never hesitated to manipulate the facts and the issue if it brings in the payola and the mighty greenback.

It cannot be denied that palm oil is planted on only 0.23% of the world’ agricultural lands and yet supplies a staggering 30% of the world?s edible oil stocks. The reason for this is palm oil’s inherent hyper yielding nature which at 4-5 metric tons per hectare is close to 10 times that of its competitors like soy, rapeseed and sunflower.

This incredible yield has made palm oil very affordable and coupled with the inherent healthful profile of the oil (as it is packed with heart friendly anti-oxidants like tocotrienols, Co-enzyme Q10, beta-carotenes and also trans fat free) is proving so popular with consumers and food manufacturers that it has catapulted palm oil into the leadership position in the edible oil market. That has made palm oil an inevitable target for competitors unable to compete in the open market with palm oil.

To these “environmentalists” it is inconsequential that the allegations of massive deforestation are patently untrue. They know that so long as they use emotive images of forest clearing by legitimate logging companies, they can pin the blame on palm oil. After all, it is so easy to take satellite pictures of an area of logged over forests and allege that it is clear evidence of deforestation caused by palm oil.

The fact that palm oil requires so little land to produce so much edible oil should clue in any objective observer that the deforestation claims are disingenuous. If the claims were true, how could Malaysia, a relatively small country, have been the world’s largest producer of palm oil for the past 100 years? How could this small country still manage to retain the 53% forest cover that it has today? 53% forest cover dwarfs the percentage forest cover of any western developed country anywhere in the world.

However, the soundbites of frivolous claims such as “over 300 football fields being cleared every hour” are bound to appeal. These “environmentalists” know that such frivolous claims are not likely to be investigated; certainly not in Southeast Asia where topographical surveys and maps are not as up to date as in the west.

Ms Khan, as a Malaysian also should be cognizant of the fact that smallholders produce more than 40% of the total palm oil production in Malaysia and that these smallholders came into the industry by participating in FELDA, a wildly successful poverty eradication programme.

These smallholders have nothing to do with deforestation or with the orangutan as orangutans do not even exist in Peninsula Malaysia where most of the smallholdings are located. In East Malaysia, it is undeniable that the large tracts of forest reserves have been set aside, some of which, like Tabin, are larger than the island of Singapore.

It was the National Geographic which recently aired a programme where it was shown that instead of going extinct, the orangutan population in the wild, estimated at 50,000 could actually be growing with the discovery of a tribe of 2,000 orangutans in Borneo, prompting Erik Meijaard, senior ecologist for the Nature Conservancy in Indonesia to observe that the discovery could add up to 5% to the known orangutan population in the wild.

This discovery also led to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) quietly removing from their website their ludicrous claim that due to palm oil cultivation, the orangutan will become extinct by 2011!

Ms Khan should be careful as to what she wishes for. If Malaysia were to switch from planting palm oil to other edible oil crops like soy or sunflower, close to 10 times more deforestation will occur as these crops have only one tenth of the yield of palm oil.

Finally, Palmhugger is compelled to wonder whether the same degree of animosity and hostility towards palm oil would still exist if palm oil was not quite as inherently hyper yielding and consequently not as competitive price wise?

Would competitors still feel that they have to resort to underhanded means to rein in a crop that they just can’t compete with in the open market. In our view, Ms Khan is just an unwitting agent and accomplice to these agents provocateurs in ultimately fulfilling their master plan!

The sad thing is that the international media has not done their due diligence and investigated the issue in depth and instead have elected to give column inches verbatim to the hype and wild and unsubstantiated allegations contained in the Press Releases of these “environmental” organisations.

That’s the real reason why the two Australian parliamentarian committees have recommended that the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling Palm Oil) Bill 2010 be rejected once they have heard representations from stakeholders (including the Malaysian Palm oil Council and environmental organisations) and have become fully informed on the facts.

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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Gloves come off on Palm oil