Latest news with #TimesEvoke
Time of India
4 days ago
- General
- Time of India
The other Big Oil
We usually think of 'big oil' as slick fossil fuel 'supermajors' which power modernity, from its automobiles and aviation right down to the smartphone in your hand. However, there is another 'big oil' in our lives — these are the liniments used in everyday products, from bread to baby food, lipsticks to detergent. Some oils are made for cooking, a global trade of over $200 billion in 2024. Of all these inputs, across edibles and usables, palm oil reigns supreme — global production in 2024 was 77 million tonnes, as compared to 21 million for sunflower. Palm oil is expected to expand to 240 million tonnes by 2050. Its plantations are 10% of Earth's permanent cropland — each person consumes an average of 8 kgs palm oil a year. Chemistry — and its intertwined equation with economics — is the driving force behind this domination. Compared to other plant-based oils, palm oil is perennial, less demanding of soil and most productive, generating six times more per acre than sunflower and eight times more than soybeans. With a history of slavery, colonialism and indentured labour, it has always been a cheap material while its combination of fat and consistency lend themselves to multiple products. Given how palm oil is in both pizza and paint, its presence is phantomlike — undiscernible, yet pivotal. However, while that makes palm oil seem regal in our kingdom of commodities, its sweeping cape hides a darker side — palm oil plantations demand cutting down tropical forests. The infernos lit to clear these drive greenhouse gas emissions, making Earth unstable, while the loss of the homes nature gave them has placed wonderful species, from orangutans to elephants, tigers to rhinos, at the fearsome door of extinction. Importantly, while palm oil demand began in the Global North as it enriched itself on the back of slaves, today it is driven by the Global South — India, China and Indonesia use 40% of all palm oil. Here too, it carries superhero swagger — and underlying tragedy. It was adopted as people grew better-off and fast food chains plus processed edibles appeared gleefully on the scene. Yet, as people consumed such 'modernity', they also developed its ailments, from obesity to diabetes. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like AirSense 11 – Smart tech for deep sleep ResMed Buy Now Undo However, the world must work out safeguards around this massive source of livelihoods. As Times Evoke's global experts emphasise, knowing the provenance of what we use is vital. This can steer us towards sustainable options, from supporting small farmers to choosing locally-produced alternatives with lighter carbon footprints. Join Times Evoke in discovering palm oil's journey through history and cartography — we can still change the trajectory of the other 'big oil'.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
‘Palm oil prevails from soap to napalm — it feeds billions but pollutes Earth'
Jonathan E. Robins Jonathan E. Robins is Associate Professor of History at Michigan Tech University. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke , he discusses the story — and challenges — of palm oil: What is the history of palm oil? ■ This product had been used for thousands of years in Africa. But the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade in the 16th and 17th centuries brought people, food and products outside Africa. Palm oil was used to feed enslaved captives on slave ships. It was also used as a cosmetic — before they were auctioned off in America, it was applied to make the skin of enslaved people look shiny and healthier. It also played a role in the colonial scramble for Africa — palm oil was an important motivation for European empires to seize territory, trying, for instance, in Nigeria and Cameroon to secure and monopolise access to oilproducing regions. Later, it reached Southeast Asia — in the 19th century, the British began to expand their control over the Indian Ocean area. They transferred oil palm seeds and other plants they thought were economically useful across the region. The Dutch were also involved — a consignment of oil palm reached then-Dutch East Indies in 1848, taking root there. Who were the workers growing this crop? Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Redefine Your Future with a Top Online MBA SRM Online Enquire Now Undo by Taboola by Taboola ■ Initially, in Southeast Asia, there was little local interest in palm oil because coconut was a well-established industry. In the 20 th century, when prices for all commodities, but particularly edible oils, began to skyrocket around WWI , high prices for oil drew Europebased companies to invest in oil palm plantations in the region. They copied the established business model for rubber, where colonial governments took land from local people and leased it to European companies — they then imported workers from India, Java or China, often under indenture contracts. The wages these plantations paid were simply not high enough to attract locals — they thus relied on recruiting labour from places with fewer opportunities, limited access to land, overpopulation and often, famine conditions which compelled people to seek overseas work, even at low wages. How did palm oil then get involved in post WWII development plans? ■ In the 1950s-60s, the World Bank and former colonial powers, like the British and French, began looking for projects that could create jobs in ex-colonies and increase supplies to address what many believed was an impending global food crisis. Being a labour-intensive crop, the palm oil industry provided a lot of employment while creating a material useful for food and other products. Eventually, that became part of the development narrative of post-colonial economies like Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, etc. Instead of rejecting colonial crops, independent governments embraced them as a source of revenue that could be channelled into other development projects. What is the history of palm oil, fats and 'an industrial diet'? ■ This story begins in the 19th century when a series of discoveries in chemistry revealed new ways of manipulating natural fats from plant and animalbased oils. Manufacturers were seeking to reduce costs — one way was by making raw materials interchangeable. So, they used chemistry to modify fats from different plant and animal sources. The cheapest products using palm oil first were candles and soap — it then found itself in food. In the late 19 th century, new products, like margarine, cooking and frying fats, began to be developed. They were simply sold as new 'industrial' fats — one week, they might be made with hydrogenated cottonseed oil, another week, with palm oil. For manufacturers, these fats being substituted so easily was very appealing. Palm oil became such a significant part of this system because the plant is an extremely efficient producer of fats and has both unsaturated liquid components and saturated fats, which makes it applicable across industries. Can you tell us about its presence in modern soap? ■ West Africans made soap using palm oil centuries ago — in the 18th century, European travellers there described such locally-made soaps. Europeans began using it first as a colouring agent. Raw, unrefined palm oil has a striking red or orange colour — when fresh, it also has a very interesting scent. This combination made palm oil an attractive ingredient for early soap manufacturers. In the 19 th century, as Britain moved to abolish the slave trade, British merchants and shipping companies began exporting more and more palm oil to make up for that commercial loss. Its price fell and as it became cheaper, soap makers began to use it as their main ingredient. How did it make its way into weaponry? ■ The main connection is through a product that all fats contain called glycerine — for years, this had been discarded as a waste product but then, chemists discovered it could be used to make, among other things, explosives. Nitroglycerin was the first major explosive based on this. A series of other applications derive from this use of palm oil — napalm was initially developed using palmitic acids drawn from it, a thickened sort of gasoline product that burns. Later manufacturing shifted to other materials — yet, palm oil was important enough to give this weapon its name 'napalm'. What are palm oil's environmental impacts? ■ The Southeast Asian industry in particular grew at the expense of destroying primary forest which was first targeted by colonial plantations. This continued post-independence. Deforestation is also of great concern in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. But other impacts include water pollution — factories extracting palm oil use enormous amounts of water. Until the 1980s, most byproducts of this process were just dumped into local waterways, causing pollution. This is still a problem in many 'frontier' areas where oil palm is a newly developed industry. The mills started there often don't have the equipment and infrastructure to safely process waste — hence, deforestation combined with water pollution produces very negative impacts. PROFUSE, YET UNSEEN: Palm oil is widely used Palm oil employs millions though — are there sustainable ways forward? ■ It's a challenge because palm oil is often invisible in the products we consume — rarely can we see its colour or taste its flavour. Those components have been intentionally removed from most palm oil added to consumer products. I'd suggest people think about palm oil with curiosity and concern. It is a very important food product, it sustains billions and converting it now, for instance, into biofuel is a concern for some who worry that the rush to embrace biodiesel and 'green fuels' will not only accelerate deforestation but also increase food prices. These issues are one reason I use a commodity approach in my research — this allows us to grasp onto physical objects that connect us to different regions, organisations, governments, corporations and real people who produce and consume these things. Commodities help us avoid abstractions — they ground our understanding of global challenges, environmental to economic, in a way where we can see their origins in history and hopefully use that to address our own world.
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India and China were the world's richest nations — rice grew their wealth: Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh
Francesca Bray is Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke , she outlines the history of rice — and its workers: What is the core of your research? Over my career, I've looked at multiple aspects stemming from my original research, which was on the history of agriculture in China . From that came an interest in agrarian networks and social systems linked with these. Gender, with its associated crops, was one such topic — this is when I grew particularly interested in rice. Does rice represent global commodity networks? Rice is rather special in today's world — wheat and corn are global commodities, bought and sold between countries in greater quantities than usually consumed in their home economies. Rice is an exception — although it has world markets, most rice produced is actually consumed within the societies that grow it. Rice has resisted the large-scale industrial monoculture model and rice fields are still smaller than wheat, soybean or industrial maize. Rice encourages smaller farmers and more diversity of crops and occupations. IT'S AT SO MANY LEVELS: Rice, grown in a variety of ways by small farmers, from flat paddies to layered terraces, evolved its own technological development and sparked entrepreneurship — Live Events Did rice cultivation shape pre-colonial societies? With the ability of its farms to remain small, rice did away with feudal relations — the management of farms by small agriculturalists meant their labour was not directly controlled by a landlord. As long as they paid their rent, they were fine. Secondly, it encouraged small farmers to become entrepreneurs, working at household scale or with local manufacturers and often buying land of their own. In southern China, the notion of wealth growing within generations was strong because people could change their status. In Malaysia, peasants contributed taxes to a king's coffers but they weren't feudal labour — they were independent farmers. How do you view the characterisation of ricebased economies being slower and less technological than wheat-eating nations? The historian Roy Bin Wong's book 'China Transformed' suggests the principle of symmetrical comparison — instead of saying 'Europe went this way and China and India didn't, so what did they do wrong?', we should ask what people wanted there and whether they were successful at managing it. The south Chinese rice-centred economy actually grew enormously over the centuries, becoming a global powerhouse. It didn't give rise to an Industrial Revolution like England's and mechanisation wasn't big but many systems for raising capital, making it available at a distance, etc., developed there. The 19 th century onwards, interactions in the Indian Ocean-Pacific world between Western capitalism and what was supposed to not be capitalism in Asia had several financial systems which came from South India, East Asia and Islamic nations. WERE YOU ALWAYS PEARLY? Rice includes harsh realities like colonialism and forced labour India and China were actually the richest economies on Earth — rice was a significant factor in this wealth and the social organisation of businesses around it helped produce capitalism. So, it's not helpful to say, 'They were slow and got overtaken', because if you look in detail at the interactions, there was mutual influence — of course, since the people writing such books were English or Dutch, they preferred to say they were the ones bringing progress. How did colonialism then impact rice? Rice was an essential product in the rise and expansion of colonialism and the emergence of a global industrial economy — during the colonial era, rice became a cheap staple food for poor workforces around the world. By 1700, rice was the main provision of the slave trade between West Africa and the Americas — it then became the staple of colonial labour across the tropical zone. In the 18 th century, rice plantations in Brazil and South Carolina harnessed African skills to grow the crop for export to Europe and the Caribbean. Through the 19 th century, as they expanded colonies in Asia, British, French and Dutch powers carved out export-based rice zones in Indochina and Indonesia — they also priced the rice industries of America out of the market. Independent kingdoms in Southeast Asia like Siam (Thailand) also entered the fray and opened new rice frontiers to feed miners, plantation workers and growing urban populations. A latecomer colonial power, Meiji Japan , met its expanding resource needs by annexing Taiwan and Korea and taking control of their rice production. Chinese merchants controlled most of the rice trade across Southeast Asia. FROM STAPLE TO SPECIAL: Rice is many- splendoured The area under rice increased as colonial workforces expanded — by the mid-19 th century, new technologies for draining, pumping and levelling meant swampy deltas and flood plains could now be turned into paddy fields. In Indochina, rice industries were set up to feed migrant workers in mines and plantations — in Punjab and Bengal, the British intensified rice systems developed by the Mughals to expand commercial cropping of indigo, cotton and sugarcane. Colonial policies drove the emergence of what the historian Peter Boomgaard calls 'monotonous rice bowls', monocrop zones depending on intensive labour by workers who had little opportunity to diversify or increase their incomes. Typically, they were tied down by debt — colonial governments introduced taxes that had to be paid in cash while moneylenders charged high rates of interest. It was in this fertile soil that the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was planted. What role has gender played in rice? IT'S NOT JUST HIS-STORY: The chronicles of women rice farmers are often wilfully erased Even between China and Japan, which were very close in many respects, the gender coding of rice cultivation was different. China was a particularly intense example of a gender coding where men were supposed to be in the fields growing grain and women in the house, weaving cloth. This view dated back to the early imperial period in China and outlived the eventual switch to monetary payment. The notion that men should be out in the fields and women at home remained fundamental in Chinese political economy and concepts of identity, gender and morality. It seemed to fit with Chinese circumstances since many rice regions in China were textile producers, which did start with women producing the textiles. As the economy commercialised though, more and more men came into the textile industry which began to expand to workshops outside the home. Meanwhile, in many regions, women were out working in the rice fields — but since this wasn't regarded as 'proper' or 'ideal' women's activity, their hard work was often erased from the history books.
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
‘India and China were the world's richest nations — rice grew their wealth'
'India and China were the world's richest nations — rice grew their wealth' Francesca Bray is Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Speaking to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke , she outlines the history of rice — and its workers: What is the core of your research? Over my career, I've looked at multiple aspects stemming from my original research, which was on the history of agriculture in China. From that came an interest in agrarian networks and social systems linked with these. Gender, with its associated crops, was one such topic — this is when I grew particularly interested in rice. Does rice represent global commodity networks? by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Secure your family's future! ICICI Pru Life Insurance Plan Get Quote Undo Rice is rather special in today's world — wheat and corn are global commodities, bought and sold between countries in greater quantities than usually consumed in their home economies. Rice is an exception — although it has world markets, most rice produced is actually consumed within the societies that grow it. Rice has resisted the large-scale industrial monoculture model and rice fields are still smaller than wheat, soybean or industrial maize. Rice encourages smaller farmers and more diversity of crops and occupations. IT'S AT SO MANY LEVELS: Rice, grown in a variety of ways by small farmers, from flat paddies to layered terraces, evolved its own technological development and sparked entrepreneurship — Did rice cultivation shape pre-colonial societies? With the ability of its farms to remain small, rice did away with feudal relations — the management of farms by small agriculturalists meant their labour was not directly controlled by a landlord. As long as they paid their rent, they were fine. Secondly, it encouraged small farmers to become entrepreneurs, working at household scale or with local manufacturers and often buying land of their own. In southern China, the notion of wealth growing within generations was strong because people could change their status. In Malaysia, peasants contributed taxes to a king's coffers but they weren't feudal labour — they were independent farmers. How do you view the characterisation of ricebased economies being slower and less technological than wheat-eating nations? The historian Roy Bin Wong's book 'China Transformed' suggests the principle of symmetrical comparison — instead of saying 'Europe went this way and China and India didn't, so what did they do wrong?', we should ask what people wanted there and whether they were successful at managing it. The south Chinese rice-centred economy actually grew enormously over the centuries, becoming a global powerhouse. It didn't give rise to an Industrial Revolution like England's and mechanisation wasn't big but many systems for raising capital, making it available at a distance, etc., developed there. The 19 th century onwards, interactions in the Indian Ocean-Pacific world between Western capitalism and what was supposed to not be capitalism in Asia had several financial systems which came from South India, East Asia and Islamic nations. WERE YOU ALWAYS PEARLY? Rice includes harsh realities like colonialism and forced labour India and China were actually the richest economies on Earth — rice was a significant factor in this wealth and the social organisation of businesses around it helped produce capitalism. So, it's not helpful to say, 'They were slow and got overtaken', because if you look in detail at the interactions, there was mutual influence — of course, since the people writing such books were English or Dutch, they preferred to say they were the ones bringing progress. How did colonialism then impact rice? Rice was an essential product in the rise and expansion of colonialism and the emergence of a global industrial economy — during the colonial era, rice became a cheap staple food for poor workforces around the world. By 1700, rice was the main provision of the slave trade between West Africa and the Americas — it then became the staple of colonial labour across the tropical zone. In the 18 th century, rice plantations in Brazil and South Carolina harnessed African skills to grow the crop for export to Europe and the Caribbean. Through the 19 th century, as they expanded colonies in Asia, British, French and Dutch powers carved out export-based rice zones in Indochina and Indonesia — they also priced the rice industries of America out of the market. Times evoke Independent kingdoms in Southeast Asia like Siam (Thailand) also entered the fray and opened new rice frontiers to feed miners, plantation workers and growing urban populations. A latecomer colonial power, Meiji Japan , met its expanding resource needs by annexing Taiwan and Korea and taking control of their rice production. Chinese merchants controlled most of the rice trade across Southeast Asia. FROM STAPLE TO SPECIAL: Rice is many- splendoured The area under rice increased as colonial workforces expanded — by the mid-19 th century, new technologies for draining, pumping and levelling meant swampy deltas and flood plains could now be turned into paddy fields. In Indochina, rice industries were set up to feed migrant workers in mines and plantations — in Punjab and Bengal, the British intensified rice systems developed by the Mughals to expand commercial cropping of indigo, cotton and sugarcane. Colonial policies drove the emergence of what the historian Peter Boomgaard calls 'monotonous rice bowls', monocrop zones depending on intensive labour by workers who had little opportunity to diversify or increase their incomes. Typically, they were tied down by debt — colonial governments introduced taxes that had to be paid in cash while moneylenders charged high rates of interest. It was in this fertile soil that the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s was planted. What role has gender played in rice? IT'S NOT JUST HIS-STORY: The chronicles of women rice farmers are often wilfully erased Even between China and Japan, which were very close in many respects, the gender coding of rice cultivation was different. China was a particularly intense example of a gender coding where men were supposed to be in the fields growing grain and women in the house, weaving cloth. This view dated back to the early imperial period in China and outlived the eventual switch to monetary payment. The notion that men should be out in the fields and women at home remained fundamental in Chinese political economy and concepts of identity, gender and morality. It seemed to fit with Chinese circumstances since many rice regions in China were textile producers, which did start with women producing the textiles. As the economy commercialised though, more and more men came into the textile industry which began to expand to workshops outside the home. Meanwhile, in many regions, women were out working in the rice fields — but since this wasn't regarded as 'proper' or 'ideal' women's activity, their hard work was often erased from the history books.
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
‘Australia leads in rooftop solar tech — we can boost India's green transition'
Down under: Australian HC Philip Green says global warming is a lived reality Philip Green , Australia 's High Commissioner to India, spoke to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke about the climate crisis — and Australian responses: Are there energy and environmental transition areas India and Australia could collaborate in? ■ There are several — and for Australia, doing so is important because there is no global green transition without India, the most populous country on Earth and already the world's fifth largest economy. There are three areas where we have capabilities that are important to India. The first is critical minerals — the vast majority of the world's batteries are lithium ion now. Australia produces over 50% of the world's lithium — India is becoming a major manufacturer of batteries and electric vehicles. So, we're trying to get India direct access to our supply chain of lithium and other critical minerals. The second area is clean tech where we have advanced proficiency — for example, Martin Green at the University of New South Wales produced the fundamental Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell ( PERC ) technology found now in all solar panels. Our companies and individuals hold around 14,000 patents in solar and wind technology — that's about the same as Germany, which has thrice the population and is a well-known expert in science and engineering. Australia has huge innovation. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo However, we're a long way from global markets and can't scale with our small population. India has the scale and connectivity to globalise our inventions — we'd like to link Australian innovation with Indian scale. During the India Energy Storage Week, we are bringing 22 companies to engage with Indian counterparts in solar to hydro tech. The third is skills — India has a huge, young labour force and Australia offers skills and capabilities training. We are already working with India's Skill Council for Green Jobs to support training 2,000 technicians, helping India reach its target of 10 million solar rooftops. What is Australia's experience of global warming? ■ Australia is the driest inhabited continent on Earth and very vulnerable to climate change — this now shows in the devastating bushfires we saw some years ago, rising temperatures, harsher storms, less predictable rain, etc. Australians feel a lived change with global warming — in our recent election, they voted for a party which has climate change high on its priority list. This is now a palpable reality for us. What are Australia's commitments — and achievements — on renewables? ■ We've been reliant on fossil fuels for many years — that is changing dramatically now. We have a goal for 82% of our national grid to be green by 2030. We've reduced coal-fired power generation from 70% to under 50% and we produce some of the lowest-cost renewable power in the world. We lead globally on rooftop solar — Australia has the largest per capita deployment on Earth. When our Prime Ministers met last year, they discussed Australia providing rooftop solar expertise to India. What are the challenges Australia faces in the energy transition while ensuring growth? ■ Our approach is to maintain Australia's economic prosperity while we make this vital transition — one particular challenge is our size. Australia is over twice the size of India — we can generate low-cost renewable power but transmission is a challenge with our vast distances. So, we've embarked on major grid modernisation — we're spending $20 billion on ' Rewiring the Nation ', a program for our grid to take on more renewable power and reach it reliably to households and businesses. Much of Australia's industry uses environmentally extractive processes — is there a plan to make these more sustainable? ■ We have mechanisms encouraging our largest emitters — many being mining companies — to reduce their emissions in line with our 2050 net zero goal. Hearteningly, big players are picking up on this — for example, Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Group has decided to decarbonise its operations, largely iron ore extraction and exports. They are spending over $6 billion to decarbonise their primary mining operations and fund electric trucks to move the ore from pits to trains. We also produce some of the world's most sizable amounts of 'green' metals — alongside lithium, we're among the world's largest cobalt producers. As our mining becomes greener, it is increasingly producing the minerals and metals required for other nations' green transition. What role does indigenous knowledge play in Australia's environmental strategies? ■ We are immensely proud that our country is home to the oldest living culture on Earth — Australian indigenous people have pursued ways highly respectful of the environment. Frankly, they have been better at preserving the land than later generations of migrants. We are seeking to engage our indigenous communities in better land management — in some parts, for instance, it makes sense to apply indigenous practices of burning grasslands in the cool season, so there is less material to combust in the heat. We are also deploying indigenous people to protect and advance our ecology. How are Australia's species faring with climate change? ■ Much of our flora and fauna, like koalas, wombats and kangaroos, are unique to Australia and we strongly seek to protect them. Currently, 22% of our landmass is national parks. We are seeing climatic effects on eucalyptus forests in some areas now, reducing koala habitat, etc. Perhaps less obvious to the eye, but no less crucial, is the marine domain — the population of White's seahorses in Sydney has greatly reduced due to warming oceans. We're concerned and following the '30 by 30 Target' — by 2030, we will protect 30% not only of our landmass but our marine environment as well via national reserves, etc. America's returned to the 'Drill, baby, drill ' mantra — does Australia have a view? ■ America makes its own choices. Australia has made its own very clear choice — we seek climate change action. Hence, our ambition is to reduce emissions, adopt renewables, etc. Also, we look beyond — our near-abroad are countries of the Pacific, many profoundly affected by climate change. Hence, Australia, with these Pacific nations, is bidding to host the next UN FCCC COP summit as climate change issues are now vital for us. (Views expressed are personal) Times Evoke 'Diplomaticus' is an occasional series with international envoys on climate, energy & geopolitics Koalas and seahorses now face climate change
