Here’s another thought experiment to drill this point home: let’s consider how much land the world would need to produce all its vegetable oils from any one of these options. We currently use 322 million hectares to grow oil crops. That’s an area the size of India. If we were to get all of it from palm oil we’d need just 77 million hectares – four times less. We’d free up a lot of land. On the other hand, if we got it all from soybean oil, we’d need more land: 490 million hectares. From olive oil we’d need twice as much land as we currently use – around 660 million hectares. Two Indias.
