To Palm Oil Or Not To Palm Oil?

 Learning what makes an ecological difference.

A few of the German television channels do put on some wonderful programs. A lot to do with being ecologically conscious and doing little daily things better.

For the last year or so I have tried to avoid palm oil in products. Nobody wants to see the rain forest further eroded and it seemed so simple to just avoid palm oil. Well, today I heard an interesting viewpoint on this.

An alternative to palm oil would be sunflower or rapeseed oil. All good stuff until one realizes that each takes up about three times more area to grow than palm oil does. That could equate to much more of the rain forest being eroded in order to support consumer switching from palm oil. Ghastly. What to do? Well, thankfully the expert gave excellent advice on how to save the rain forest...don't eat processed food if you can help it. Make meals from scratch!

Of course in Germany the major share of imported palm oil is used for bio-diesel. Yes, transport the culprit yet again. Drive less or switch to petrol or e-cars.

Another interesting point made was to do with coffee. Yes, coffee plantations also erode major sections of forests around the world. Again, an assumption that I have made was put aside. Organic coffee, I thought was better for the planet. Less chemical etc. Well, yes, but again, organic coffee plantations only reap about half the yield of normal coffee plantations. So, to satisfy our addiction to coffee of the organic kind they would have to double the space used for plantations, resulting in more forests being eroded. And with so many of us turning to coffee as a status symbol ( need I say more than those silly folks paying over 5 euros for a cup of coffee? ), it might be best to avoid organic.

One thing that the expert mentioned in passing made me jolly glad. She mentioned that animal agriculture is one of the main reasons for forests being eroded around the world. Especially rain forests. 

Navigating the path to greenness is far from easy, but satisfying to tread upon...Oh, and one is never too old to learn something new.

Biggi