Palm Oil Newsroom

A consortium of environmental groups said that, while they agreed with the findings, the EPA underestimated the emissions levels. They said they believe palm oil has serious environmental consequences.

"The emissions of palm oil based biofuels substantially exceed the emissions from conventional petroleum diesel," Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.

Wilmar International, the world's largest palm oil processor and trader, has hired a major lobbying firm to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's ruling that palm oil-based biodiesel will not meet greenhouse gas emissions standards under America's Renewable Fuels Standard, reports The Hill.

"Occupying the food system" has emerged as a rallying cry as activists and movements across the country, from Willie Nelson to more than 60 Occupy groups are turning up the heat on "big food" in nationwide actions today. Across the US, online and offline, thousands will be protesting icons of corporate control over food such as Monsanto and Cargill, and literally occupying vacant lots and tilling long-ignored soils in a mass-scale rejuvenation of community-led food production.