Wednesday, February 13, 2013

MALAYSIA - Demand for Palm Oil = Migrant Workers

"Growing Demand for Palm Oil Drives Malaysia to Employ Child Migrant Workers" PBS Newshour 2/12/2013

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  Next: the very high cost of a very common product.

A growing demand for palm oil used in cooking and many processed foods is driving one country to harvest it using migrant workers, many of them children.

Special correspondent Steve Sapienza traveled to Malaysia, one of the world's second largest exporter of the oil.  His story is part of a collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

STEVE SAPIENZA:  In Malaysia's Sabah province, migrant workers hustle to keep up with the rising global demand for palm oil.  Made from the fruit of oil palm tree, it is now found in more than half of all the products sold in U.S. supermarkets, from cookies to cosmetics.

This labor-intensive work has changed little since the 1960s, when the government first pushed the expansion of palm oil production.  Today, palm oil is Malaysia's top crop, netting $25 billion dollars a year, and driving the spread of palm oil plantations into the wilderness.

The once sleepy port town of Lahad Datu is at the epicenter of Malaysia's palm oil boom.  The local population has doubled over the past 15 years, and real estate prices are soaring in what has been dubbed Palm City.

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