THE PALM OIL DILEMMA-INDIAN ROLE

Two countries which are on the dock for destroying forests at an alarming rate for cultivating commercial crops are Brazil and Indonesia. While sugar cane cultivation is being expanded recklessly after deforestation in Brazil, Indonesia is attracting world-wide criticism for the mindless destruction of its tropical forests for planting Oil Palm. The disastrous consequences of deforestation are well known in the form of increased carbon emissions worsening the global warming problem which is putting this planet on peril. Deforestation also destroys the flora and fauna of the region, hurtling some of them into extinction. The issue has two sides-one linked to the economic well being of people depending on palm cultivation and export of the oil while the other concerns the global community which is seriously worried about the ill-effects of green gas emissions. India has been dragged into this emerging controversy because of its over dependence on imported palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia. The complexity of the problem is addressed in the following critique though no solution seems to be in sight for overcoming the same.   

"The lush Indonesian rainforest cover is being stripped at an alarming rate for illegal logging and palm oil plantations due to demand for the commodity in India. Companies catering to domestic needs have failed to ensure clean and sustainable source of the cheap palm oil, resulting in the rapid destruction of the rainforest which is home to thousands of plant and animal species, a Greenpeace report has stated. The report 'Frying the forest – how India's use of palm oil is having a devastating impact on Indonesia's rain forests, tigers and the global climate', was released recently in Mumbai. "The issue is that India is the biggest importer of palm oil with imports of 7.2 million tonnes per year. As the world's largest user of palm oil, India has an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure that its purchases of products such as palm oil are coming from responsible sources and aren't linked to rain forest and peat land destruction, and the resulting climate-changing emissions," Nandikesh Sivalingam, Greenpeace forest campaigner, said during the release of the report here. Mr G. Chandrashekar, noted journalist, while releasing the report said that the world cannot survive without palm oil because it is a cheap source of calories, but neither can it afford to destroy its rainforests. He said it was time for oil-producing countries to follow strict rules and regulations to protect the rain forest".

Probably Governments in India during the last 3 decades are to be partially blamed for making the country over-dependent on imported edible oils. This is due to the faulty implementation of policies that would have allowed increased production of oils from sources like groundnut, mustard, sesame, soybean etc for which Indian farmer has the necessary experience. In stead a crop like sugar cane is promoted which has tremendous water requirement and other inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides.  The 1990 Oilseed Mission of Government of India, planned and executed with no missionary zeal had flopped wasting millions of rupees without any significant increase in production. The domestic production is almost stagnant during the last two decades while the demand was growing at a frenetic pace. The new certification system by the Greenpeace movement that promotes palm oil produced by sustaining cultivation practices is yet to be accepted universally and blaming India for buying this commodity from those producers who do not have such certification may not be justified. After all as a responsible government, it is its bounden duty to provide adequate food to its citizens and under the present conditions India does not seem to have any option but to continue to import palm oil from where ever it is available in the world market.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FLEXITARIANS-A NEW BREED OF CONSUMERS

Based on the predominance of the type of diet people consume, population is broadly classified as carnivores (meat eaters) and omnivores (vegetarians) but such distinctions get blurred because there are people who are flexible in their approach to food. Those who are not compulsive meat eaters but can manage with plant based foods are now being called "flexitarians" reflecting their flexibility in choosing the type of food they want to eat. A pure vegetarian can never reconcile to a food which is derived from a dead animal and there are natural non-vegetarians who can be reconciled to a vegetarian diet due to economic compulsions. Recent emergence of a generation willing to switch over to a vegetarian diet is compelling the food industry to come out with products which are not animal based but still gives them the feeling of consuming a meat based preparation. It is some thing like a smoker trying to cut down on smoking realizing its dangers to health. Such products make the efforts of people trying to change their predominantly meat based diets into predominantly plant based foods and this trend augurs well for the sustenance of this planet. Here is a take on this important development.

"Flexitarians — health conscious and mostly younger consumers — are drawing the attention of the food industry, which is developing new meat-mimicking products. One of the latest innovations is soy chicken from the research laboratories at the University of Missouri. The market potential is huge. Only 2 to 3 percent of Americans consider themselves vegetarians, but 4 percent of American eaters aged 18 to 29 choose to eat a meatless meal at least once a week, according to market research firm Innova Insights. The Vegetarian Research Group, meanwhile, estimates that 13 percent of Americans over 20 eat meat with fewer than half of their meals, and 25 percent say they are "working to eat less meat." For Sholar, the driving force was concern about cholesterol. Though the change wasn't easy here in barbecue country, after seven years living the flexitarian life, he's pretty used to it. "Sometimes you're looking to make something taste a bit like meat, a lot of times you're not. You're just realizing you just don't eat meat," Sholar said. High-end supermarket chain Whole Foods is seeing more demand for meals that aren't based around meat, according to Sarah Morgan, a healthy eating specialist for the Rocky Mountain region of Whole Foods. "A lot of our customers tell us that they're looking for some alternatives, and they're looking for new ways to think, instead of this standard American diet that's very animal-protein focused," Morgan said. Many of those customers haven't had to live without the foods they grew up eating.Enter the new Holy Grail for some food companies: vegetarian foods that replicate the carnivore's food experience so they don't feel that they're sacrificing while giving up meat".

In India where vegetarians are supposed to be predominant, it is often not clear whether this situation is due to economic factors or life style evolution. But the proportion of vegetarians in the total population will definitely go down if the economic development puts more money in the hands of the consumers to buy meat foods which are invariably costlier. Those who swear by meat diets are forgetting the reality that, just like fossil fuels sources running out, this planet will never be able to sustain production of adequate meat foods and even if quantitatively production is achieved it will be at a terrible price unaffordable to generations that follow the present one. The very fact that to raise one kg of animal protein one has to waste at least seven times more plant protein must have a sobering influence on the thinking of present generation. Same is true with water consumption. With environmental degradation taking place at a faster rate during animal raising, the quality of air is bound to be adversely affected jeopardizing every form of life on the earth. Global warming is bound to be more pronounced under the above conditions which in turn affect the production of plant foods. Sooner this realization dawns on the humans of current generation, lesser will be the danger that will haunt the world in future.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com