ABSTRACT
Neste, the largest Scandinavian biofuel producer, has positive views on palm oil that are not shared by eco-activist organizations. In May 2007, Greenpeace campaigned in Europe, along with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and other NGOs, warning the government about the risks of biofuels as an alternative to petrol and diesel. Unilever, a major user of palm oil in cosmetic and other lines (Palmolive soap, for instance), seems to agree. The company declared its concern about biofuels, saying that they are neither environmentally efficient nor cost effective in reducing GHG emissions. According to Unilever, since palm oil is used as cooking oil by two billion of the poorest people in the world, any price increase has direct consequences on their purchasing power. Of course, it also has an impact on their input factor prices
As we have intimated, the evolution of events in the recent history of the palm oil industry (mainly from 1997 to 2011) has been politically complex. Institutionalpower relations, cultural clashes and political economic disputes have all been involved in palm oil’s development. We will use the political ecology framework (Orsato & Clegg, 1999), originally adapted from Clegg’s (1989) circuits of power, to conceptualize the issues. Only as the process unfolds are we able to translate the sense that is being made, which we now represent in Figure 1 and describe in the remaining parts of the paper. In other words, we use the framework to intertwine the data with its interpretation.
