Just a few interesting things I’ve learned yesterday
These are the most interesting things I’ve learned yesterday from this Twitter thread by @JoeReuters:
Palm oil is consumed, often unknowingly, by billions of people every day.
The reason is that, in the mid-1990s, consumer goods companies realised palm oil was far cheaper and more versatile than alternatives, whether you want to stop your ice cream from melting or make your shampoo more frothy.
[So] farmers burned down tropical forests to plant more trees, producing lots of nasty smoke and destroying the habitats of animals like orangutans and tigers
One great hope [to make much more money] for palm oil producers was biofuels, [but in 2019] the EU agreed to ban palm oil in biofuels from 2030 over deforestation concerns.
Malaysia & Indonesia, which together produce 85% of the world’s palm oil, weren’t happy and they set about forming a strategy to strike back.
This secret campaign set out to undermine the EU, green activists and the growers of alternative crops like soy, sunflower and rapeseed. The strategy mirrored similar tactics by tobacco companies, using front groups supposedly representing poor farmers.
Palm oil is here to stay. It’s too big to fail. India and China buy the bulk of palm oil so boycotting Kit Kats and L’Oreal lipstick isn’t going to work
What you just read are just the main reasons to read why, “Fearing tobacco’s fate, palm oil industry fights back”.