For my final In The News post I have chosen to explore recent findings in the sustainable farming of palm trees in Colombia, a practice which, until this point, has been widely condemned by environmental activists due to the large carbon footprint, deforestation, and negative impact on biodiversity caused by farming of these crops for the production of palm oil.
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, a Swiss research institute specializing in natural sciences and engineering, has for many years conducted research into the cultivation of palm oil crops, particularly in regard to soil, in an effort to develop more sustainable growing methods. The interest in this particular crop stems from the fact that it is notoriously environmentally unfriendly. For example, in Indonesia and Malaysia where the majority of the crop is produced it has both directly and indirectly caused large scale deforestation and the release of massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. To make matters, this carbon release is in no way, or at least only very moderately, affected by the carbon storage capacity of the crops themselves.
Recently, however, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne has discovered an alternative way of growing these crops which is far more carbon friendly than the current method by studying the growth of palm oil crops in former pasturelands in particular regions of Colombia, the fourth largest producer of palm oil in the world. Oil plantations replaced these pasturelands some 56 years ago, and by calculating the carbon footprint of the palm crops since that time, scientists with the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne have been able to determine that the total carbon storage capacity of the palm crops planted in these areas is essentially the same as when these regions were used as pastureland; in other words this “recycling” of pasture territories is able to create palm oil crops that are in essence carbon neutral.
Palm oil is a crop which many small farmers in Colombia and south east Asia depend upon as a source of income, the problem with the crop lies in the massive carbon footprint and loss of biodiversity through deforestation. However the majority of palm oil producing countries also happen to have a large number of disused pastureland which could be responsibly and sustainably converted to palm oil plantation lands, limiting the carbon footprint of these types of farming practices, in turn reducing the overall level of carbon emissions of these countries as a whole.
These types of practices are very encouraging to me as someone who tries to practice individual sustainability especially in the sourcing of my food. When it comes to smaller farming practices in lesser developed nations, particularly in South American where deforestation is so prevalent, it is very encouraging to see emergence of development in affordable and sustainable practices which also make use of otherwise “unusable” land that benefits both the people and the environment.