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Palm Oil: Good Fat, Bad Fat
Palm oil: we consume more than 50 million tonnes of it every year. In supermarkets across the globe, 1 in 10 products contains some trace of palm oil – from breads, biscuits and cakes, to cooking oil, cosmetics and detergents. A billion dollar industry, palm oil is also increasingly being used as a bio-fuel substitute for petroleum products, and has found new popularity as a natural solution to the problem of trans-fats, which have been shown to seriously damage human health.
However, despite its popularity, many people have never heard of palm oil or simply do not know they are using it. This cutting-edge documentary investigates where it comes from and how it is made, uncovering the effects of palm oil on human health and the environment. For some, palm oil is a natural solution to man’s desire for cheaper ingredients in food and for bio-fuels, and in Malaysia and Indonesia where the majority of palm oil is grown, the economic benefits are undeniable, with poverty at its lowest levels ever. But environmental groups see the expansion of palm oil plantations as a ticking climatic time bomb driving the destruction of precious rainforests. Are the long term costs to the land being overlooked in pursuit of this liquid gold?
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