I'm over olive oil

[yachtingone]

I was watchin the news and one of the articles boasted the benifits of palm oil...

So I googled palm oil and found this riviting site!

I am switching to palm oil!

http://www.americanpalmoil.com/

Is anyone else going to change? It's good for us and the worlds enviroment too...

Randy

[Tyrone]

If you have to bulldoze native rainforest to grow and produce it, it's not good for the environment. I'll stick to olive oil.

[markpeters77]

Agree with Tyrone, I prefer rainforests rather than vast acreages of oil palms in their place.

Fair play to the Malaysians for utilising previously farmed land rather than virgin rainforests but this is not the case worldwide. I don't doubt any of the benefits but fear that a complete change away from olive to palm oil would see an increase in rainforest destruction for it's production unless worldwide treaties could be drawn up forbidding such clearances.

Edited March 5, 2011 by markpeters77

[KPL]

Randy, not so fast. Do wait awhile!

kpl

[Xenon]

I wonder if anybody makes their own palm oil?

"Do you have access to palm fruits? You can make your own home made palm fruit oil in the easy to follow steps. Zomi or cooking palm fruit oil is made by boiling ripened and already harvested palm nut fruit in a big pot for about 40 minutes until it becomes soft and tender.The cooked fruits are scooped into a big mortar and gently squashed with a pestle, avoiding damaging the nut, but only to squeeze out the juice on the covering pulp. Once this is done, the juice obtained is filtered to remove the shaft and then boiled again.

At this stage, the fresh oil would be seen floating on top of the content of the pot which is scooped off into yet anther pot. Done. You can make as much oil as you want.

Fresh oil from palm fruit is traditionally used in eating roasted yam or plantain in Africa, especially in farms after a hard day’s job."

How to make your own palm oil

Jonathan

[BigFrond]

If you have to bulldoze native rainforest to grow and produce it, it's not good for the environment. I'll stick to olive oil.

So right!

I read an article on the Nat. Geographic a year or two ago regarding large area of land in Brazil bulldozed for oil palms and soybeans. What a sad site! It is a mess in the making.

[Breadfruit Bill]

Use this to make your own palm oil...

http://www.piteba.com/

Much better product than the boiling method!

[Walter John]

Eat fresh foods.

Palm Oil and orangutans

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

For now, I'm sticking with olive oil. Practically every doctor I've talked to on the subject (there have been a few) says that olive oil is better (and they use it, except when feeling decadent, when they use butter).

The main reason is that olive oil is high in monounsaturated fats, compared to palm oil which contains much more saturated fats.

Any large scale plantation of any kind can despoil the environment.

I suggest that the only real difference between Mediterranean olive lands and tropical forests cleared for recent palm oil plantations is that the olive oil farms have been around for a thousand years (or more), and the forest they displaced may have been forgotten about. Think Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon . . . .

Just a thought.

Oh yeah, explain to an Italian peasant why people here in America buy "Olive Stop" to spray on their olive trees . . .

[palmmermaid]

I am sticking with olive oil. Fro high heat purposes, I will mix it with canola. I also like hazelnut,macadamia nut, and grapeseed oils. My doctor says to use olive oil when possible. But I will say when I am cooking a steak, I use a little butter because I love the flavor.

[yachtingone]

I had no idea when I started this thread there would be so many nay sayers!

I want to address the habitat destruction mentioned. In the video it was stated that NO habitat destruction was taking place to make palm tree oil! NONE!!!

They are using land that was destroyed from reckless use in the past. No forest will be plowed to make this product.

Now let's look at olive oil, corn oil and even butter. Is there any habitat destruction done for you to have it to cook with?

Olive and corn oils takes land destruction to farm the plants used to make these products! We all know how terrible cows are on soil!

From the reserch I did palm oil is far healthier for us than olive oil. Of course some people do not embrace change. I understand the resistance to

change. I changed from butter to olive oil.

Now I am going to try palm tree oil today. I will have seared ahi tonight! Cooked with palm tree oil...

Randy

[DoomsDave]

I'm going to have some salmon seared in some light, sweet crude . . . .

[Walter John]

I had no idea when I started this thread there would be so many nay sayers!

really ?

[yachtingone]

I had no idea when I started this thread there would be so many nay sayers!

really ?

Yea I know your right Wal:interesting:

[aussiearoids]

A few years ago one of our members who lives in Africa posted a fascinating thread with great pics on how the local villagers made palm oil for local consumption.

[amazondk]

If you have to bulldoze native rainforest to grow and produce it, it's not good for the environment. I'll stick to olive oil.

So right!

I read an article on the Nat. Geographic a year or two ago regarding large area of land in Brazil bulldozed for oil palms and soybeans. What a sad site! It is a mess in the making.

Here in Amazonia forest destruction traditionally have been to convert forest to pasture land to raise cattle. There are now 75 million head of cattle in the Brazilian amazon region. What has happened as the soy bean frontier has moved north is the conversion of many times degraded pasture land into soy bean farms. Palms have not been an issue in forest conversion. Although there are now large areas planted with oil palms in the state of Para. But, these have been planted on degraded pasture land which was converted from forest some time ago. Personally I think that oil palm plantations in Brazil are a very viable use of degraded land. About 18 percent of the amazonian forest has been cleared or converted from the original forest. This is a lot of area due to the immense size of Amazonia. It is also important to point out that 500 years ago as much as 15 percent of Brazilian Amazonia had been deforested by the native inhabitants. Although the pattern of this was different as it was more scattered out in small plots. With the mass depopulation of the region after European contact most previously deforested areas returned to forest. The productivity of oil palm plantations is very high and it does provide income for local inhabitants. Some species of Attalea native to our region have also been tried for oil production. In fact there is a noticable movement under way by ranchers to restore large areas, especially along water courses to native forest vegetation.

The situation in Indonesia is much different than here. I do not believe that Amazonia will be deforested and devasted. That does not mean that proper land use practices should not be followed though. The forest is the most important part of our region and it plays a large role in the climate of Brazil. And, as I said above one of the solutions for better land use is to palnt oil palms on degraded land.

dk

[palmmermaid]

If I buy olive oil from Italy or California (planted on former orange grove or vineyard land) then I am not contributing to the destruction of forests. If I buy local butter from a farmer who only pastures his cows then I am not contributing to forest destruction. I only buy pastured beef and dairy products. It is more expensive but since we only have beef about twice a month and don't use much milk, cream,or butter, I don't feel bad about the higher prices. When I buy cheese, I buy from responsibloe farmers whether they are here in the US or in Europe. Every time we spend money on food we make a conscious decision about which farmers we support.

While I agree with Don about the land use in Amazonia, I don't trust anything from the Far East when it comes to the environment.

[amazondk]

Oenocarpus batua makes an oil nearly identical to olive oil. In fact it was used during WW II to substitute olive oil in the USA. The negative side to this that a lot of trees were just chopped down here to get the fruit instead of harvesting the fruit by leaving the trees standing. Not that there is any shortage of these trees today though. Coconut oil is supposed to be very healthy to consume. In fact I believe all palm oils are good for you in one way or another.

dk

[Tyrone]

To say that no rainforests and virgin land are being cleared to produce Oil Palm plantations is just false. Look at Indonesia and just look at the burning going on in Malaysia as you fly over the southern tip as you fly to Singapore. In fact just before you fly over the channel into Singapore airport which is still Malaysia, there are vast fields of Oil Palms.

Also on a slightly different topic, despite what the popular opinion of government endorsed health professionals is, Coconut oil is one of the best oils known to man. Don't believe the negative hype. If it was so bad, everyone in Asia and the Pacific Islands would be dead now.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Kumar]

deforestation will result in any country with lax environmental laws if a plant that grows there yields a good cash crop. Today perhaps it is oil palm plantations that cause habitat loss. Tomorrow if people switch over to coconut oil and coconut palms can be grown in the same place, then the plantations will simply switch over to coconut palms. For that matter there is nothing unique about the negative effects of oil palm production. Paper, wood, cattle, cotton, sugarcane and maize - are all responsible for deforestation and monoculture. It is just that is many countries this happened long ago so today we assume that the present look is 'natural'. Most of europe for instance, has lost nearly all its native forests to farmland in the last 100 years. For myself, I think given an option, clearing land in a tropical place for a tropical palm is far better than clearing land in a temperate climate for a water-thirsty plant like cotton (see what happened to the aral sea) or for cattle grazing or even to cultivate more maize for ethanol-fuel - for that matter. So to have a clear conscience you would, in addition to palm oil, have to give up meat, paper, milk, cotton clothes, wooden furniture and even power (if it was sourced from a maize-ethanol plant) unless you knew for certain that all of these were sourced from responsible suppliers.

[pogobob]

I had no idea when I started this thread there would be so many nay sayers!

I want to address the habitat destruction mentioned. In the video it was stated that NO habitat destruction was taking place to make palm tree oil! NONE!!!

They are using land that was destroyed from reckless use in the past. No forest will be plowed to make this product.

Now let's look at olive oil, corn oil and even butter. Is there any habitat destruction done for you to have it to cook with?

Olive and corn oils takes land destruction to farm the plants used to make these products! We all know how terrible cows are on soil!

From the reserch I did palm oil is far healthier for us than olive oil. Of course some people do not embrace change. I understand the resistance to

change. I changed from butter to olive oil.

Now I am going to try palm tree oil today. I will have seared ahi tonight! Cooked with palm tree oil...

Randy

Glad to see you're on a health kick Randy, Maybe the palm oil will lubricate the braincells