Drones Will Combat Illegal Palm Oil in Malayasia

(Source: uasvision.com)  

Cargill Inc., in an April update to its palm oil sustainability report, notes it is prepared to launch UAVs in Malaysia, the world’s second-biggest grower of oil palms. “Our project with unmanned aerial vehicles is moving into the operational phase. A Cargill team is set to start flight training in Malaysia. They will soon graduate as certified UAV pilots.

“With the UAVs, we are pushing the envelope in sustainability,” the report continues. “They will help us map and monitor valuable pieces of forest land that need to be protected, and improve land and water use, so that we can grow more on the same amount of land and manage our environmental footprint better.”

Want to hear more about this? If Cargill speakers don’t bring it up, we promise to, at NEXT WEEK’S Food Leaders Summit. Cargill will be among the speakers in a panel discussion on sustainable sourcing. More information and to register for the conference, April 27-29 in downtown Chicago, is available at www.TheFoodLeadersSummit.com.

Palm oil is a widely used and very practical form of food oil and shortening. But its plantations are under fire for their effects on the environment and the indigenous people and animals. Plantations were taking over tropical forest land, often illegally, and displacing local populations at alarming rates. Wikipedia cites a 2007 report from the United Nations Environment Programme that estimated 98 percent of Indonesian forest would be destroyed by 2022 due to legal and illegal logging, forest fires and the development of palm oil plantations.

Back to the drones story: Probably the more important point, at least from Cargill’s perspective, is that the company is on track to make its goal of a 100 percent sustainable palm oil supply chain by 2020.

“A growing volume of palm oil and palm kernel oil is traceable back to the mill level,” the Cargill report continues. “On the ground, our outreach to suppliers is expanding. We are using road shows and visits to mills and plantations to work with our partners on sustainable practices and help them make improvements.

“In late 2014, we acquired a new plantation, Poliplant Group, in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. PPG will help us satisfy the growing demand for traceable, sustainable palm oil. With the help of the environmental consultancy firm Daemeter, work is under way to bring the new plantation in line with Cargill’s high sustainability standards. The goal is to achieve certification by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil as soon as possible,” the Cargill report concludes.

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