the ethics of palm oil, page-8

Jamo,

Well the interesting point about Malaysia is that it was called Malaya when it cleared land for Agriculture. That is, it was not an independent country at that stage.

Almost all the land that has been cleared for Agriculture, in what we now call Malaysia, was cleared for the plantation of Rubber. The Western World cleared this land for the benefit of the Western World. When synthetic rubber was invented and the price of rubber plummeted, Malaysia became an independent state.

Now the majority of Palm Oil plantations in Malaysia are planted on what was previously Rubber Plantations. The Malaysian government is seeking to increase the yield per hectare of Palm Plantation and NOT just clear more land for new Plantations.

If you read reports by some of the companies involved in Palm Plantations in Malaysia you see that they are not only committed to the environment, they place a high value after looking after their workers by things such as providing free medical care for their families etc.

The Western Countries have cleared land in countries such as Malaysia ... now we are criticising them for planting Palm Oil that we can use to fuel our vehicles ... where is the ethics in that ?


Disclaimer: Perhaps Indonesia and Papua New Guinea don't care about the environment, but Malaysia does.

Remember it is Malaysia that suffers the most because of the burning off that occurs in Indonesia.