Palm oil and its alternatives by University of Art and Design Linz

Palm oil production has been an important driver for the deforestation of the rainforests. But replacing the controversial raw material is difficult. If we weren’t meeting global oil demand through palm oil, another oilcrop would have to take its place and the alternatives wouldn‘t be any better for the environment.

This visualization shows the global vegetable oil production and the area of land it needs in 2018. 36 % of vegetable oil was produced from oil palms but they took up only 8.6 % of the land. Compared to soybeans, which provided 25.5 % of oil but required 39 % of the land, the yields of oil palms were much higher.