Achieving Success in India’s NMEO-OP May Call for Wider Campaign on Palm Oil Health
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The Indian government wants to achieve self-sufficiency in edible oils with an aggressive plan to cultivate more edible oils.
Its dependence on imports from Europe and Southeast Asian countries for affordable cooking oils has left it exposed to the turmoils of a global commodity where droughts or wars that have nothing to do with India, ends up affecting what the Indian consumer pays for cooking oil.
News reports paint a grim picture for India if the country fails to address the problem of feeding Indians affordably.
Its dependence on imports from Europe and Southeast Asian countries for affordable cooking oils has left it exposed to the turmoils of a global commodity where droughts or wars that have nothing to do with India, ends up affecting what the Indian consumer pays for cooking oil.
News reports paint a grim picture for India if the country fails to address the problem of feeding Indians affordably.
Image credit Matador Network- Kavita Kanan Chandra
Asia Nikkei- India consumes nearly 25 million tonnes of cooking oil a year but produces only about 11 million tonnes. The gap is met through imports.
That creates a big and growing problem for a country whose population is expected to surpass China's and hit 1.7 billion people in the next three decades.
Experts say India will be unable to wean itself off this dependence for at least another two decades, as demand in a country that uses oil for much of its cuisine continues to far outpace production.
It is among the most disturbing examples of how a worldwide spiral in food prices has spooked billions of people and their governments. A deadly storm of pressures including war, pandemic and global heating has dramatically increased the cost of household food baskets in countries rich and poor. It has raised fears of mass impoverishment and social unrest, like that seen in neighboring Sri Lanka.
BBC- Erratic climate conditions - including the driest August in more than a century - have sent food prices spiralling above 11% in India, which is a major player in global agri-trade.
India's got a "curry problem", some economists say, as the cost of a regular vegetarian meal jumped by a third in the month of July alone.
Urban Acres- In the wake of recent developments in the global edible oil market, cooking oil prices in India have experienced a significant surge, escalating by up to 15% within the span of just one month.
This unprecedented spike in prices has raised apprehensions within the Modi government as it embarks on its third term, with mounting pressure to curb food inflation and mitigate its impact on household budgets. Major players in the industry, including Adani Wilmar, Emami Agrotech, and Sunvin Group, have attributed the price hike to disruptions in soyabean oil supplies originating from Argentina and Brazil. The ongoing worker protests in Argentina, coupled with flooding incidents in Brazil’s key agricultural regions, have severely hampered soyabean oil production, leading to a noticeable scarcity in the market.
REUTERS- MUMBAI, Aug 19 (Reuters) - India will have to adopt a more cautious approach to monetary policy if high food prices persist and threaten to spill over into more generalised price inflation, the Reserve Bank of India said in its monthly bulletin on Monday.
"The conventional treatment of food price perturbations as transitory in the setting of monetary policy is increasingly becoming untenable," the RBI said in a special article titled 'Are food prices spilling over?'.
All these problems are being tackled in India’s National Mission on Edible Oils which is an overarching ambition to at once prevent social unrest due to food inflation and preserve its foreign exchange. One of the key measures to tame food inflation is the Indian government’s mission to control the cost of cooking oils as it has with grains production by expanding domestic production of edible oils.
However, aggressive measures including the approval of a genetically modified mustard seed to improve domestic production has been met with protests over fears of losing a heritage crop. The absence of subsidies for oilseeds in the form of Minimum Support Price (MSP) has led to farmer reluctance to support the NMEO with growing mustard seed or sunflower and palm oil.
In its push for NMEO oil palm, the Indian government has finally assured farmers of an MSP for oil palm.
Rubbishing foreign media on palm oil’s environmental impact in India
While all this is going on, India’s palm oil consumption has increased to 38% of total edible oil consumption. According to the Asian Palm Oil Alliance.
Palm oil has been a staple in various food and non-food products in India for centuries.
Though in recent years, misleading reports about its impact on health, nutrition and environment have surfaced, causing harm to marginal farmers and the economy said Dr Shatadru Chattopadhyay, managing director, Solidaridad Asia, an international civil society organisation working to facilitate development of socially responsible, ecologically sound and profitable supply chains.
The misleading reports on palm oil which Dr Shatadru mentioned are likely the work of foreign media like The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Dialogue Earth and Mongabay. Armed with its knowledge of how to cultivate palm oil sustainably, Solidaridad Asia has effectively dispelled foreign media reports of how palm oil cultivation is a bad idea for India.
The Solidaridad Network works in different countries to promote sustainable production of consumer goods from coffee to cotton and livestock. The involvement of Solidaridad’s Asia chapter has been instrumental in the addition of a sustainability factor in the Asian Palm Oil Alliance.
Having assuaged the concerns of a negative impact on the natural environment in India, the bigger challenge for the Asian Palm Oil Alliance might be health impacts on Indians. Leading media platforms in India are poorly informed when it comes down to saturated fats.
Rubbishing Indian media on saturated fats
From the Times of India article that said palm oil can cause heart attacks to the opinion of Vaishali Dar who quoted a housewife in his demonization of palm oil as:
Here’s all you need to know about one of the most common ingredients used in most packaged food products, ranging from breads to biscuits, chips to chocolates, and the health hazards associated with it
Since it is made of 50% saturated fat, mainly palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid, which is the principal constituent of refined palm oil, it increases blood LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol levels, increasing cardiovascular disease risk.
Writers like Vaishali Dar who made the Financial Express look bad in publishing his piece is a problem the APOA has to address.
The editors at Times of India or Financial Express should note the consumer movement in Western countries where a return to traditional diets including foods with high saturated fat content is gaining popularity among consumers for health reasons.
It does not take long to cross check Vaishali Dar’s claim as a simple search will show the latest medical findings on saturated fats like those reported by Healthline:
Still, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for most people to worry about saturated fat.
A good read for the editors at Times of India or Financial Express is Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance
If saturated fats are not to be blamed for chronic diseases in Indians, then what is the truth?
Medical experts in the US have found high consumption of carbohydrates increases the risk of heart attacks in Asian populations.
A separate study by Indian experts published in the US based National Library of Medicine highlighted the dangers of sugar and salt which has given India the dubious distinction of being a hotspot for both diabetes and hypertension.
As for saturated fats, the best advice for Indian consumers comes from Dr. Arun Kumar, paediatrician and nutrition specialist, who was quoted in a piece written by Daphne Clarence for India Today.
"High triglyceride levels, mainly due to obesity, are better managed by reducing the refined carbohydrate intake in one's diet rather than switching oil sources. Palm oil has a pretty high monounsaturated fat content (40%) that is beneficial for heart health, comparable to oils like sesame, mustard, and groundnut, and slightly less than olive oil"
This should be welcome news for Indian consumers as olive oil is prohibitively expensive compared to mustard and groundnut oils which are popularly consumed. Equally welcoming for Indian consumers should be the findings of Dr. Nina Teicholz who shook up the nutrition world with her best selling book “Big Fat Surprise.”
Her story is as much about politics as it is about science, and Nina Teicholz’s research ultimately confirms that the traditional foods we were told to abandon (meat, cheese, eggs, butter) are safe, and even good for health.
Dr. Nina Teicholz’s findings on saturated fats is especially relevant to Indian consumers where ghee and coconut oils with their high saturated fat contents have been enjoyed as a traditional cooking oil.
A good read for the editors of Indian media is Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance
As for palm oil in the Indian diet, Dr. Suresh Motwani, Secretary General of APOA suggested that the media focus on saturated fats in palm oil is an intent to misinform consumers on the health aspects of palm oil.
Palm oil critics often brand it as the baddie of the food industry due to its high saturated fat content. However, the truth about palm oil is more nuanced than the rumors suggest. Palm oil has a natural balance of saturated and unsaturated fats to ensure the absorption of various dietary micronutrients.
Palm oil is not the only oil containing saturated fat. In fact, all edible oils contain some amount of saturated fat. In reality, Palm Oil has a balanced fatty acids ratio. This is the unique properties of palm oil. Most of oil does not have these properties.
While 50% of palm oil's fatty acids are saturated, it also contains 40% monounsaturated and 10% polyunsaturated fats. This balance supports the absorption of dietary micronutrients and can help maintain healthy cholesterol levels. The high content of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in palm oil increase HDL (good cholesterol) without significantly raising LDL (bad cholesterol), making it more heart-friendly than often assumed.
We thank Dr. Suresh Motwani for sharing his knowledge on what makes a healthy cooking oil.
Published September 2024 CSPO Watch
That creates a big and growing problem for a country whose population is expected to surpass China's and hit 1.7 billion people in the next three decades.
Experts say India will be unable to wean itself off this dependence for at least another two decades, as demand in a country that uses oil for much of its cuisine continues to far outpace production.
It is among the most disturbing examples of how a worldwide spiral in food prices has spooked billions of people and their governments. A deadly storm of pressures including war, pandemic and global heating has dramatically increased the cost of household food baskets in countries rich and poor. It has raised fears of mass impoverishment and social unrest, like that seen in neighboring Sri Lanka.
BBC- Erratic climate conditions - including the driest August in more than a century - have sent food prices spiralling above 11% in India, which is a major player in global agri-trade.
India's got a "curry problem", some economists say, as the cost of a regular vegetarian meal jumped by a third in the month of July alone.
Urban Acres- In the wake of recent developments in the global edible oil market, cooking oil prices in India have experienced a significant surge, escalating by up to 15% within the span of just one month.
This unprecedented spike in prices has raised apprehensions within the Modi government as it embarks on its third term, with mounting pressure to curb food inflation and mitigate its impact on household budgets. Major players in the industry, including Adani Wilmar, Emami Agrotech, and Sunvin Group, have attributed the price hike to disruptions in soyabean oil supplies originating from Argentina and Brazil. The ongoing worker protests in Argentina, coupled with flooding incidents in Brazil’s key agricultural regions, have severely hampered soyabean oil production, leading to a noticeable scarcity in the market.
REUTERS- MUMBAI, Aug 19 (Reuters) - India will have to adopt a more cautious approach to monetary policy if high food prices persist and threaten to spill over into more generalised price inflation, the Reserve Bank of India said in its monthly bulletin on Monday.
"The conventional treatment of food price perturbations as transitory in the setting of monetary policy is increasingly becoming untenable," the RBI said in a special article titled 'Are food prices spilling over?'.
All these problems are being tackled in India’s National Mission on Edible Oils which is an overarching ambition to at once prevent social unrest due to food inflation and preserve its foreign exchange. One of the key measures to tame food inflation is the Indian government’s mission to control the cost of cooking oils as it has with grains production by expanding domestic production of edible oils.
However, aggressive measures including the approval of a genetically modified mustard seed to improve domestic production has been met with protests over fears of losing a heritage crop. The absence of subsidies for oilseeds in the form of Minimum Support Price (MSP) has led to farmer reluctance to support the NMEO with growing mustard seed or sunflower and palm oil.
In its push for NMEO oil palm, the Indian government has finally assured farmers of an MSP for oil palm.
Rubbishing foreign media on palm oil’s environmental impact in India
While all this is going on, India’s palm oil consumption has increased to 38% of total edible oil consumption. According to the Asian Palm Oil Alliance.
Palm oil has been a staple in various food and non-food products in India for centuries.
Though in recent years, misleading reports about its impact on health, nutrition and environment have surfaced, causing harm to marginal farmers and the economy said Dr Shatadru Chattopadhyay, managing director, Solidaridad Asia, an international civil society organisation working to facilitate development of socially responsible, ecologically sound and profitable supply chains.
The misleading reports on palm oil which Dr Shatadru mentioned are likely the work of foreign media like The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Dialogue Earth and Mongabay. Armed with its knowledge of how to cultivate palm oil sustainably, Solidaridad Asia has effectively dispelled foreign media reports of how palm oil cultivation is a bad idea for India.
The Solidaridad Network works in different countries to promote sustainable production of consumer goods from coffee to cotton and livestock. The involvement of Solidaridad’s Asia chapter has been instrumental in the addition of a sustainability factor in the Asian Palm Oil Alliance.
Having assuaged the concerns of a negative impact on the natural environment in India, the bigger challenge for the Asian Palm Oil Alliance might be health impacts on Indians. Leading media platforms in India are poorly informed when it comes down to saturated fats.
Rubbishing Indian media on saturated fats
From the Times of India article that said palm oil can cause heart attacks to the opinion of Vaishali Dar who quoted a housewife in his demonization of palm oil as:
Here’s all you need to know about one of the most common ingredients used in most packaged food products, ranging from breads to biscuits, chips to chocolates, and the health hazards associated with it
Since it is made of 50% saturated fat, mainly palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid, which is the principal constituent of refined palm oil, it increases blood LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol levels, increasing cardiovascular disease risk.
Writers like Vaishali Dar who made the Financial Express look bad in publishing his piece is a problem the APOA has to address.
The editors at Times of India or Financial Express should note the consumer movement in Western countries where a return to traditional diets including foods with high saturated fat content is gaining popularity among consumers for health reasons.
It does not take long to cross check Vaishali Dar’s claim as a simple search will show the latest medical findings on saturated fats like those reported by Healthline:
Still, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for most people to worry about saturated fat.
A good read for the editors at Times of India or Financial Express is Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance
If saturated fats are not to be blamed for chronic diseases in Indians, then what is the truth?
Medical experts in the US have found high consumption of carbohydrates increases the risk of heart attacks in Asian populations.
A separate study by Indian experts published in the US based National Library of Medicine highlighted the dangers of sugar and salt which has given India the dubious distinction of being a hotspot for both diabetes and hypertension.
As for saturated fats, the best advice for Indian consumers comes from Dr. Arun Kumar, paediatrician and nutrition specialist, who was quoted in a piece written by Daphne Clarence for India Today.
"High triglyceride levels, mainly due to obesity, are better managed by reducing the refined carbohydrate intake in one's diet rather than switching oil sources. Palm oil has a pretty high monounsaturated fat content (40%) that is beneficial for heart health, comparable to oils like sesame, mustard, and groundnut, and slightly less than olive oil"
This should be welcome news for Indian consumers as olive oil is prohibitively expensive compared to mustard and groundnut oils which are popularly consumed. Equally welcoming for Indian consumers should be the findings of Dr. Nina Teicholz who shook up the nutrition world with her best selling book “Big Fat Surprise.”
Her story is as much about politics as it is about science, and Nina Teicholz’s research ultimately confirms that the traditional foods we were told to abandon (meat, cheese, eggs, butter) are safe, and even good for health.
Dr. Nina Teicholz’s findings on saturated fats is especially relevant to Indian consumers where ghee and coconut oils with their high saturated fat contents have been enjoyed as a traditional cooking oil.
A good read for the editors of Indian media is Dietary fat and cardiometabolic health: evidence, controversies, and consensus for guidance
As for palm oil in the Indian diet, Dr. Suresh Motwani, Secretary General of APOA suggested that the media focus on saturated fats in palm oil is an intent to misinform consumers on the health aspects of palm oil.
Palm oil critics often brand it as the baddie of the food industry due to its high saturated fat content. However, the truth about palm oil is more nuanced than the rumors suggest. Palm oil has a natural balance of saturated and unsaturated fats to ensure the absorption of various dietary micronutrients.
Palm oil is not the only oil containing saturated fat. In fact, all edible oils contain some amount of saturated fat. In reality, Palm Oil has a balanced fatty acids ratio. This is the unique properties of palm oil. Most of oil does not have these properties.
While 50% of palm oil's fatty acids are saturated, it also contains 40% monounsaturated and 10% polyunsaturated fats. This balance supports the absorption of dietary micronutrients and can help maintain healthy cholesterol levels. The high content of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) in palm oil increase HDL (good cholesterol) without significantly raising LDL (bad cholesterol), making it more heart-friendly than often assumed.
We thank Dr. Suresh Motwani for sharing his knowledge on what makes a healthy cooking oil.
Published September 2024 CSPO Watch
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