Amid Palm Oil Boycott, India Wants To Produce More Of It
India is the world's biggest consumer of palm oil, a crop which threatens the country's water supply and is linked to deforestation. But the government faces little opposition to expand plantations.
For generations, R. Elamparithi's family farmed rice paddies in a lush corner of southeast India that's also dotted with coconut palms and banana groves.
But 10 years ago, a representative from a nearby palm oil production plant visited, and convinced him to switch over to oil palms.
Oil palms grow bunches of fruit that look like dates or small plums, flanked by prickly fronds. The fruit is pressed, yielding palm oil — which is used in all sorts of processed foods, cosmetics and even biofuel.
In India, it's one of the cheapest cooking oils. With 1.3 billion people, India consumes a lot of it, and is the and of palm oil. The government even includes palm oil in food rations for the poor.
