Well-managed palm plantations, combined with replantings to improve the productivity of existing sites, may be a far better way to supply the world’s demand for oils than increasing the acreage of either soybeans or rapeseed; badly managed ones do more damage than petroleum.
IF YOU see a flowering of "palm-oil free” labels on supermarket shelves next year, then thank Indonesian drivers, President Donald Trump’s trade negotiators, and sickly pigs in China.
Palm oil - the red, semi-solid fat used in everything from noodles and soap to pastry and lipstick - has rarely been less attractive to consumer-product manufacturers.
That isn’t so much a result of environmental campaigning against a product blamed for deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia; it’s more a reflection of shifts in commodity markets driven by high-level trade politics.
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