Palm oil

Removing oil from palm kernel

Palm oil

Palm fruit for making palm oil

Palm oil is a vegetable oil. Natural palm oil is red, but the red part is usually removed before the oil is used. It is made from the fruit of the African Oil Palm tree. Some comes from the American Oil Palm. Palm oil is used in many different products, like ice cream, toothpaste, chocolate, and candy. Most palm oil is made in West Africa and Southeast Asia on plantations.^[1]^[2]Palm oil is criticised for being one of the leading causes of deforestation, and for the use of slavery by many plantation owners to extract palm oil and profit off of it.

Palm Oil Media

Palm oil block showing the lighter color that results from boiling
Oil palms (Elaeis guineensis)
Oil palm fruits on the tree
An oil palm stem, weighing about 10 kg (22 lb), with some of its fruits picked
Worker walking near the boundary of an oil mill in Malaysia. Palm oil production is important part of economies in many parts of rural Malaysia, but is also a source of environmental conflict
Red Palm oil being sold on the side of the road in plastic bottles in Ghana. Artisanal production of palm oil is common in Ghana, providing a key staple food stuff in most traditional cooking.
Palm oil production is done in some parts of the world artisanally, and the locally produced oil is used for food, handicrafts and other products. This woman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is showing the palm fruit above a pot for processing the fruit.
A palm oil plantation in Indonesia
A palm oil mill located on a palm oil plantation in Malaysia
A satellite image showing deforestation in Malaysian Borneo to allow the plantation of oil palm

References

↑ Iskandar, Muhammad Johan; Baharum, Azizah; Anuar, Farah Hannan; Othaman, Rizafizah (2018-02-01). "Palm oil industry in South East Asia and the effluent treatment technology—A review". Environmental Technology & Innovation. 9: 169–185. doi:10.1016/j.eti.2017.11.003. ISSN 2352-1864.
↑ Grow but cherish your environment. ISSN 0013-0613 . https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2014/08/16/grow-but-cherish-your-environment. Retrieved 2020-10-31.

[1] Iskandar, Muhammad Johan; Baharum, Azizah; Anuar, Farah Hannan; Othaman, Rizafizah (2018-02-01). "Palm oil industry in South East Asia and the effluent treatment technology—A review". Environmental Technology & Innovation. 9: 169–185. doi:10.1016/j.eti.2017.11.003. ISSN 2352-1864.

[2] Grow but cherish your environment. ISSN 0013-0613 . https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2014/08/16/grow-but-cherish-your-environment. Retrieved 2020-10-31.

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