The Anatomy of Environmental Fraud: The anti-palm oil scams of Greenpeace and FOE - Part 2

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by: Palm Hugger
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Word Count: 1175
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 Time: 6:19 AM
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"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over"

"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play."

If the above quotes sound familiar, they are key propaganda principles articulated by the master propagandist himself, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda.

That, in a nutshell, is exactly the strategy that is adopted by green groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in running their anti-palm oil campaigns. Never too concerned with the truth, these green groups display a cynical affinity for the propaganda principles espoused by Goebbels and have proven to be only too happy to play the press like a great keyboard, knowing that if they were to tell a lie big enough and kept repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

Using the press to hammer home the message that palm oil is causing massive deforestation and thus threatening the extinction of biodiversity such as the orang utan, these green groups have never shown any compunctions or willingness to consider the facts on the ground.

A look at the World Growth Report entitled "Palm Oil is Most Sustainable Vegetable Oil" dated October 14th 2009 is most instructive and demonstrates adequately, the systemic propagation of lies and the lengths to which these green groups will go towards fulfilling their agenda. As this report will show, red-blooded and barefaced lies are the stock-in-trade of these green morons!

"IN recent months, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have mounted a major campaign against palm oil in markets of industrialised economies, threatening to campaign against brand name consumer businesses unless they vow to cease using the product.

The European Union has imposed trade restrictions on imports of biofuels (particularly palm oil).

The orang utan is being promoted as an animal which palm oil is threatening. The aim is to restrict production of palm oil. The heavily distorted campaign has its dark side.

Palm oil is a very effective industry for creating jobs and raising living standards. Restricting production will restrict a key strategy available to countries in the tropical areas to reduce poverty.

The environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) pushing this campaign historically have disregarded the impact of their campaigns on the poor. Here is another case.

A new World Growth report, Palm oil - the sustainable oil has just been released to restore balance in public discussion of palm oil. As African Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recently stated, the best way to end deforestation is to end poverty.

Research has shown that between 60% and 70% of land clearing is undertaken by the poor and poverty stricken seeking shelter, fire wood or land for subsistence farming. Nations such as Malaysia have dedicated more than 55% of land as permanent forest reserve. Indonesia has set aside 25% of land in reserve.

Environmental NGOs have also claimed that increased demand and supply for palm oil will necessarily lead to increased land clearing. This is simply not true.

Advances are occurring all the time to improve the yield and productivity of palm oil plantations. Further, many new plantations in Malaysia are being planted on degraded land, which actually improves the quality of the land and actually absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. Other plantations are occurring on land formerly planted with less efficient crops.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Centre for International Forestry Research in Indonesia have both stated that the primary cause of the loss of habitat of the orang utan is human settlement and large scale forestry plantations.

However, the palm oil industry, in collaboration with some environmental NGOs, is funding orang utan conservation programmes and wildlife habitat corridors.

Palm oil is one of few plantations which produces enough produce from a small amount of land that it can return an income to a small land holder. In Indonesia, almost half of all palm plantations are owned by small land-holders.

Palm oil has been recognised by the World Bank as one of the best means to reduce poverty and raise the standard of living of a nation. There are some issues being faced by a small number of indigenous people. While these cases do raise a considerable amount of publicity, these tensions are always faced as a nation develops and grows.

Palm oil generates nearly 10 times the energy it consumes. Soybeans generate only three times the amount and rapeseed 2.5 times.
The oil palm needs only 0.26ha of land to produce one tonne of oil. Soybean, sunflower and rapeseed respectively require 2.22ha, 2ha and 1.52ha. This makes palm oil the most efficient and sustainable vegetable oil grown.

The palm oil industry, in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), has also initiated the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to create certification systems for sustainably-produced oil.

In addition, there are many local laws in producing nations which govern the environmental and other legal requirements for palm oil plantations. Lifecycle analysis of carbon footprints of various oilseeds shows greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil are significantly lower than rapeseed and soybean.

The research surrounding the absorption capacity of palm oil and carbon dioxide released as a result of a new plantation either on forest or peat land is currently in its very early days. There is not sufficient research to draw any conclusions on the impact of palm oil crops on greenhouse gas emissions.

Palm oil is being attacked because it is successful. It is the fastest growing, cheapest, highest quality and most sustainable vegetable oil in production.
Analyses by the US department of agriculture shows annual production from Indonesia and Malaysia, (today they account for nearly 90% of world production) has risen over the last decade from 15,000 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes.

Palm oil is shaking up global vegetable oil markets. Several years ago the US oilseed industry promoted scurrilous, false claims that palm oil caused heart disease.

Palm oil is arguably the healthiest of all vegetable oils. For example, it has no trans fats.

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth oppose all plantation and commercial crops because they are monoculture. They have chosen palm oil as a symbolic campaign symbol." World Growth.

About the Author

Palmhugger is a palm oil advocacy site that makes no apologies for exposing the lies, untruths and equivocations on palm oil spewed by a coterie of environmental morons against the world's most sustainable edible oil and biofuel feedstock. We are part of a collective group of palm oil sympathizers that have grown tired of the blatant untruths, spin, lies and unfair trade bloc promoting activities of green NGOs like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FOE) against palm oil.

In vigorously exploding the myths and falsehoods propagated about palm oil in relation to deforestation, global warming, palm based biodiesel, the environment and the sustainability of palm oil, let the environmental morons be forewarned: In the interests of truth, we'll never hesitate to call a spade a spade… in exposing your lies about palm oil, with absolutely no holds barred!"

Palmhugger is 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, film makers, 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 programs for advocacy and lobbying of palm oil environmental matters, always with an emphasis on truth.