Palm Oil Helps Poor People Around The World
English
Indonesian
English
In 1984 Indonesia won the Medal of Honor from FAO following the country’s achievement in rice self-sufficiency. Why did United Nation give medals to Indonesia? Maybe not many know it.
As the world’s largest rice importer, Indonesian rice imports affected world rice prices to be expensive. It was before Indonesia achieved self-sufficient in rice. However, after Indonesia succeeded in achieving rice self-sufficiency, world rice prices experienced a significant decline. This allowed the world’s poor populations of around 2 billion people to buy more rice and avoid starvation or malnutrition. The medal was given to award Indonesia which had a major impact on the avoidance of billions of populations from starvation.
Indonesia then once again managed to get similar achievement, though without any Medal of Honor from FAO, when Indonesia was able to produce and became the world’s largest palm oil producer since 2006. The increase in global palm oil production that surpasses global soybean oil production also benefits more than 2 billion people from low-income populations on this planet. How come?
First of all, palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil compared to other types of vegetable oil such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil or sunflower oil. The existence of exported palm oil in every country around the world has provided many poor people with highly nutritious but affordable vegetable oil.
Secondly, the production of palm oil in a large degree compared to other types of vegetable oil can actually pull down prices of other vegetable oils such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, and sunflower oil. This also benefits the low-income global population.
In other words, around billions of poor people around the world could be helped by palm oil especially for those who live in African countries, India, China and Asian countries. Almost one third of global populations which is around 6 billion of people consisting of low-income populations could also receive benefits from palm oil. Therefore, it can be said that people who are involved in negative campaign against palm oil are being ignorant and ruthless toward those people.
Therefore it is not wrong to say that palm oil is the greatest blessing around the world which has been passed through Indonesia.
Indonesian
Tahun 1984 Indonesia memperoleh medali kehormatan dari FAO, atas prestasi Indonesia mencapai swasembada beras. Mengapa badan PBB itu memberi medali kepada Indonesia? Mungkin tidak banyak yang mengetahuinya.
Sebelum Indonesia mencapai swasembada beras, Indonesia adalah negara pengimpor beras terbesar dunia. Sebagi importir beras terbesar dunia, impor beras Indonesia membuat harga beras dunia mahal. Namun setelah Indonesia berhasil mencapai swasembada beras, harga beras dunia mengalami penurunan cukup signifikan, sehingga penduduk miskin dunia yang saat itu masih sekitar 2 milyar orang, mampu membeli beras yang lebih banyak dan terhindar dari kelaparan atau kekurangan gizi. Jadi medali itu adalah penghargaan swasembada beras Indonesia yang berdampak besar pada terhindarnya miliaran penduduk dunia dari kelaparan.
Meski tanpa medali, prestasi yang hampir sama sesungguhnya juga terjadi akibat keberhasilan Indonesia meningkatkan produksi minyak sawit dan menjadi produsen minyak sawit terbesar dunia sejak tahun 2006 lalu. Peningkatan produksi minyak sawit dunia yang melampaui produksi minyak kedelai dunia menguntungkan penduduk miskin dan berpendapatan rendah dunia yang saat ini berjumlah sekitar setidaknya 2 milyar orang. Kok bisa?
Pertama, minyak sawit adalah minyak nabati paling murah didunia dibandingkan dengan minyak nabati lain seperti minyak kedelai, minyak rapeseed, maupun minyak bunga matahari. Kehadiran minyak sawit diseluruh negara-negara dunia melalui ekspor minyak sawit setiap tahun, menyediakan minyak nabati murah dan bergizi tinggi bagi penduduk miskin disetiap negara.
Kedua, Kehadiran minyak sawit yang jauh lebih besar dari minyak kedelai dan tersedia sepanjang tahun, mampu meredam kenaikan bahkan menarik ke bawah harga-harga minyak nabati lain seperti minyak kedelai, minyak rapeseed, maupun minyak bunga matahari. Hal ini juga menguntungkan bagi penduduk dunia berbendapatan rendah.
Dengan kata lain, minyak sawit menolong penduduk miskin dunia saat ini masih sekitar 1 milyar orang tersebar dihampir seluruh negara terutama di negara-negara kawasan benua Afrika, India, China dan Asia tengah. Juga menolong penduduk sedikit di atas miskin atau berpendapatan rendah yang jauh lebih banyak lagi hampir sepertiga penduduk dunia yang saat ini sekitar 6 milyar orang. Karena itu siapapun yang berkampanye negatif terhadap minyak sawit, berarti menzolimi penduduk miskin dunia.
Tak salah lagi bahwa, minyak sawit memang salah satu anugerah terbesar bagi masyarakat dunia melalui Indonesia.
Share this article
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on whatsapp
Share on telegram
Share on xing
Share on email
You may also like these articles
