Malaysia – Is Oil Palm all the future?

I spent 3 weeks in Malaysia and connected a loop around the peninsula from Penang, the British East India company trading colony. I crossed mountain ranges, drove along beautiful beaches on the east coast and trekked in the rainforests but I was never far from Palm Tree Plantations.

Malaysia is the second largest producer of Palm Oil after Indonesia. Approximately 12% of Malaysia is planted with Palm Oil trees which produce 18 million tonnes of Palm Oil. I never realised the multitude of use, from cooking oil to biodiesel.

Palm Oil is rich in Carotenoids and people with diets rich in carotenoids, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have lower mortality – interesting to know but I won’t start eating margarine! Malaysia is leading the world with legislation requiring diesel to contain 5% palm oil but Greenpeace claim that the clearing of rainforests and burning of peat bogs will do more harm to the global environment than the cleaner emissions from bio-diesel. Time will tell if replacing rainforests with Palm Oil plantations is the best decision long term.