The four most important agriculture export
streams, in value, in the world in 2011 were US$17.6 billion soybeans from
United States, palm oil from Malaysia for US$ 17.5 billion, US$ 17.3 billion palm oil from Indonesia and Brazilian
soybeans for US$ 16.3 billion. Notably all four streams are for two oil crops both
doubling also as excellent protein feed stock. The consumption of vegetable oils demonstrates the most rapid expansion
of all major food categories and they contribute 10 percent of all food
calories compared to 5 percent 45 years earlier. The global increase in per
capita vegetable oil consumption has been 5.2 percent annually[i].
Most of this growth is attributable to two oils, palm oil and soy bean oils.
Earlier, fat and oils were a rich man’s food in a similar way as sugar was a
rich man’s food until the large-scale sugar plantations were established. Now
with extremely large scale soybean and palm oil plantations price of vegetable oil
has gone down considerably and calories from vegetable oil is almost as
affordable as calories from grains and other traditional staples. In 100g of
palm oil there are 880 calories while 100 g of whole wheat has 370 calories. Palm
oil price has been between 2 and 4 times higher than wheat the last decades[ii].
In 1966, soy oil
passed butter to become the world's leading edible oil or fat. In 1982 palm oil
was in second place worldwide, sunflower seed oil in third, butter (fat
content) in fourth, and rapeseed (canola) oil in fifth, all far behind soy oil[iii].
Of the total vegetable oil production of 161 million tons 2012/13 palm oil and
palm kernel oil (both from the same oil palm) contributed almost 40 percent and
soybeans 27 percent, meaning that two thirds of all vegetable oil comes form
those two crops. As we can see from the table only rapeseed and sunflower oil
play an important role in the global picture[iv].
Palm oil production is also without competition most area efficient, often
reaching 5 tons oil per hectare. This is ten times more than the typical oil
yield of rapeseed, sunflower and soybeans.
|
Palm
|
35%
|
|
Soybean
|
27%
|
|
Rapeseed
|
15%
|
|
Sunflower seed
|
9%
|
|
Palm Kernel
|
4%
|
|
Cottonseed
|
3%
|
|
Peanut
|
3%
|
|
Coconut
|
2%
|
|
Olive
|
2%
|
|
USDA FAS, Major Vegetable Oils: World Supply and
Distribution
|
|
In comparison total
world production of butter was some 9 million tons[v],
which is more than total coconut and olive production, but still rather
marginal. Today, in average 1.3 kg butter and ghee per person is consumed in
the world ranging from almost nothing in China
to 2.7 kg in India[vi] and an average of 2.8 kg in developed
countries. Developed countries also consume considerable quantities of cream,
2.2 kg per person[vii]. Almost 6 million tons of lard and 7 million
tons of tallow are produced. Animal fats are also consumed as part of the meat
itself, and much animal fat is consumed in other dairy products as well. But by
and large animal fat plays a minor role for our food fat supply.
As a crop oil palm has
many good properties, in particular that it is a
perennial tree crop with high yields. Nevertheless, the rapid expansion has
been accompanied by environmental and social damage. This include the loss of
tropical rainforests due to land clearance and conversion to plantations (I
have personally experienced how mainland Malaysia was covered by a haze caused
by the burning), the destruction of wetland ecosystems following drainage, the
pollution of waterways by eroded soil, the improper disposal of mill waste, and the contamination of rivers due to
leaching of nutrients and pesticides when applied improperly. The expansion has
reduced wildlife habitats and oil palm expansion is considered as a main threat
to Orangutans as well as Sumatran Tiger. Not only are trees cut down to clear
for oil palms, but a lot of the plantations are made on peat lands, which are
mostly made up of organic matter. When drained the organic matter breaks down
and emits very high quantities of CO2[viii].
This makes Indonesia
the third largest green house gas emitter in the world – eighty percent of the
emissions are from deforestation and land use changes[ix].
(extracted from the book Global Eating Disorder - the cost of cheap food, forthcoming)
[i] Globalization and
Food Consumption, Jacinto F. Fabiosa in The Oxford Handboook of The Economics
of Food Consumtion and Policy, 2011
[iii] Shurtleff, William & Akiko Aoyagi 2007 History of Soybeans and
Soyfoods: 1100 B.C. to the 1980s, http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/soybean_crushing1.php
accessed 1 January 2014
[v] USDA FAS 2014,
Butter Production and Consumption: Summary For Selected
Countries, accessed 5 Jan 2014
[vi] Gerosa, Stefano and
Jakob Skoet 2012, Milk
availability, Trends in production and, demand and medium-term outlook, FAO, ESA
Working paper No. 12-01
[vii] Gerosa, Stefano and
Jakob Skoet 2012, Milk
availability, Trends in production and, demand and medium-term outlook, FAO, ESA
Working paper No. 12-01
[viii] Obidzinski, K., R. Andriani, H. Komarudin, and A. Andrianto. 2012.
Environmental and social impacts of oil palm plantations and their implications
for biofuel production in Indonesia.
/Ecology and Society/ *17*(1): 25. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-04775-170125
[x] FAO Statistical
Division 2014, D-Protein-Cons.country-Groups Country groups 1990-92 1995-97
2000-02 2005-07
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