Reading Response on Palm Oil Production and Sustainability

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Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
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Institution
Professor
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Surname#1
Reading response
Summary: pursuing sustainability by linking knowledge with action
The author in chapter five stresses on the importance of linking knowledge with action. This is
because sustainability demands a lot of knowledge for the necessary actions to be taken. Trust is
the answer to the dilemma of how knowledge is influential. Users are more likely to trust new
knowledge and act on it if it meets the criteria of saliency, credibility and legitimacy.
Summary: become less damaging
The article begins by acknowledging that palm oil production is south East Asia is very
profitable but ecologically disastrous. The author addresses the dilemma by citing a publication
by Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) which concludes that the problem is not
the crop itself, but how it is produced (Laurance, William Jeffre and Kenneth 107-109). The
author seemingly provide a solution to how the crop is produced by suggesting the crop to be
planted on savannas and degraded land. This would exempt the forest lands and hence reduce the
current rapid deforestation. The major take away from the cited publication is not to confuse the
crop with the people who develop it. further , the author identifies the profitability of the crop as
the major cause why farmers grow it a lot.
Summary: violent cost of the global palm oil boom
The author begins by telling how an activist was murdered by a plantation company adding to
the tally of the palm oil related murders. The author further narrates why palm oil is so valuable
and if we can do without .it was a replacement for Trans fats and thus used in processed foods
and as biofuel (McMichael, 689).The author states that palm oil has led to a lot of income but
also has resulted to environmental degradation due to deforestation. Throughout the rest of the
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article the author narrates how palm oil has sparked conflicts between environmental activists
and beneficiaries of the palm oil business.
Summary: quandary with palm oil
The author argues that if the coconut or the likes of olive trees could produce the same desired
value, we would not be talking about palm oil. From India to Philippines every person craves to
join the bandwagon of palm oil business (Scott, 19).Their ideology is easy, they claim palm oil
thrives best in tropical countries compared to other vegetable oils which only do so annually
while palm oil is a perennial plant, hence saving labor cost of replanting every annual season.
Summary: Can the production of palm oil be stopped?
With the accelerating rate of deforestation and global carbon emissions increase in countries like
Indonesia, it’s a dilemma that use of palm oil which is green energy source, cheap and its rising
demand now brings conflict of interest. Not forgetting palm oil requires less space, less farm
inputs, and all these benefits are hard to dismiss.
Reflection: pursuing sustainability by linking knowledge and action
The chapter purports that trusting information is needed for actions to be taken. This approach is
not comprehensive because there are many other factors that would determine acting on
knowledge. Take for example there is a new technology that is being invented to curb
environmental pollution (Mekhilef, Siga & Saidur,1937). The fact that the technology is new
shows it has not being implemented anywhere and proven to work in the longterm.so in my
opinion trusting the information is not enough to ascertain if knowledge is actionable. Other
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