DEBATE TIME 11 Read these newspaper articles and use them as food for thought for debating the following motions. 1. Palm oil should be forbidden to preserve health and environment. The Guilty Secrets of Palm Oil It’s an invisible ingredient, really, palm oil. You won’t find it listed on your margarine, your bread or your biscuits. It’s there though, under “vegetable oil”. And its impact, 7,000 miles away, is very visible indeed. The wildlife-rich forests of Indonesia and Malaysia are being swept away and replaced by palm-oil plantations. When the rainforests disappear almost all the wildlife and indigenous people go. In their place there will be palm-oil plantations stretching for mile after mile, producing the cheapest cooking oil in the world for everyday food. Palm oil is a wonder plant. Astonishingly productive, its annual yield is 3.6 tonnes a hectare compared with half a tonne for soy or rapeseed. It’s not that people haven’t noticed what is going on. The United Nations has documented this rampage. Environmental groups have warned that what we buy affects what is happening in these jungles. Even if there’s plenty of evidence of the devastating environmental effects of palm-oil, little of it can be seen on the products in the world’s biggest supermarkets. Adapted from: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/the-guilty-secrets-of-palm-oil-are-you-unwittingly-contributing-to-the-devastation-of-the-rain-forests-1676218.html 2. Vertical farming has a negative impact on the environment. Is Vertical Farming Eco-Friendly? There’s been a lot of buzz around vertical farming lately. Its promise of year-round produce, reduced water usage, and the elimination of traditional farming’s land requirements certainly paint a picture of an environmentally friendly, sustainable future. But as we dig deeper, we uncover a more complex reality that challenges the rosy image of vertical farming. So, while vertical farming might be part of the solution to the growing food demand, it isn’t a magic bullet. It has its role to play, but it must be one part of a broader, multifaceted approach to sustainable agriculture. Adapted from: https://ecotsy.com/why-vertical-farming-is-not-eco-friendly