agribusiness
With ban on palm oil exports, Indonesia reaps condemnation and praise
JAKARTA — Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of crude palm oil, has ordered a ban on the export of the commodity starting April 28 to address an ongoing shortage of cooking oil in the country. President Joko Widodo announced the ban on April 22, set to run indefinitely, saying he wanted to ensure the country […]
Indonesian trade official, palm oil execs charged in cooking oil crisis
JAKARTA — Indonesian prosecutors have charged a top trade ministry official and three palm oil executives in connection with a scarcity of cooking oil that has driven up protest and caused public unrest. The Attorney General’s Office announced on April 19 that it had charged Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana, the director-general of foreign trade at the […]
Palm oil firm that cleared Papuan forest after losing its permit is still at it
JAKARTA — A palm oil company whose permit was revoked at the start of the year and which was ordered to halt operations is allegedly continuing to clear forests in Indonesia’s Papua province. PT Permata Nusa Mandiri (PNM), one of more than 100 companies targeted in a mass cancellation of plantation permits by Indonesia’s environment […]
For Indonesians, palm oil is everywhere but on supermarket shelves
JAKARTA — Cartel practices have been blamed for a scarcity of cooking oil in the world’s top producer of palm oil — but government policies seen as coddling the industry have also come under scrutiny. Households across Indonesia have since last October experienced acute shortages of cooking oil. Even when supplies have been available, prices […]
The complete guide to restoring your soil: Q&A with soil expert Dale Strickler
Son of a sharecropper and lifetime farmer, Dale Strickler has lived his life by the soil. Strickler grew up in an impoverished area near the Ozarks in the U.S. Midwest, where he says he watched as the crops on his family farm died from drought and as the topsoil washed away from tilled fields. “If […]
Inga tree points to way out of slash-and-burn for Central American farmers
Like many rural families in Central America, Martín García and his sons devoted part of every growing season to slashing and burning a new strip of their land, knowing that it was the only way to make it fertile enough to yield food for everyone. They couldn’t grow on the land they had used in […]