Palm Oil Productivity Paradox

“Governments must stop the conversion of forests to plant oil palm. But having said that, oil palm is the world’s most productive source of vegetable oil. If palm is done correctly, it has the least environmental impact of any vegetable oil. There’s nothing else that can touch it. Expanding any other vegetable oil crop would have far bigger impacts on the environment than expanding oil palm. Oil palm makes it possible to turn degraded land into an asset. But existing plantations can do better as well. Many oil palm plantations – and virtually all smallholder plantations – use genetic varieties that produce between half and two-thirds of what better varieties can produce. You could nearly double production simply by replanting poorer-performing plantations with better genetics. You’d also have more resistance to diseases. And you’d have shorter trees, which would make it easier for the producers to harvest.”

“Out of an average 44,000 items in a U.S. supermarket, 40 percent contain corn, and 50 percent contain palm oil or one of its derivatives.”