Viva La Baguette, but whither palm oil?

Voicing out grievances: Felda chairman Datuk Seri Utama Shahrir Abdul Samad (third from left) and a group of palm oil farmers chanting slogans near the Petronas Twin Towers in protest of European Union (EU) plans to ban palm oil biofuels. — AP

FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron has called for the baguette, a crusty long loaf of French bread, to be included on Unesco’s “intangible heritage” list, just like Naples’ pizza twirling art known as “pizzaiuolo”. Both foods are part of French and Italian daily life that are worth celebrating with the world, and if heritage listing provides due recognition, I say why not.

Although we celebrate these European accolades, I cannot help but have a bad taste in my mouth over the European Parliament’s vote in Strasbourg, France, to ban palm oil biofuel from the European Union (EU) from 2021. In fact, what these Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have done is nothing short of a poison pill for over 650,000 independent oil palm small farmers in Malaysia.