First Quarter Results

Three months have passed, how did I do? First of all it has been a joy to dive into a complex subject like Sustainable Palm Oil. It touches food security, poverty, human rights, deforestation, economic development, biodiversity and other topics. I have found LinkedIn and Twitter useful to keep me up-to-date with the latest developments. YouTube, as always, provided amazing documentaries that also forced me to look at my own unsustainable consumption. For more in-depth knowledge I completed four interesting courses.

Courses completed
Forests and Livelihoods in Developing Countries by the University of British Columbia helped me understand the different ways in which people depend on forests for timber and non-timber forest products such as bush-meat, fruits, vegetables and rattan.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provided a course on Global Postharvest Loss Prevention: Fundamentals, Technologies, and Actors. It taught me about food security and how much food is lost between farm and fork.
Back to the future was a series of lectures from Utrecht University and WWF. The most interesting thing I learned is how stories define our notion of reality.
Introduction to Sustainable Development by Columbia University ... Wow! What a convincing way to show people that we have crossed planetary boundaries. It relates to a quote I later heard at a conference on Sustainable Supply Chain Management: "We are the first generation to feel the effects of climate change and the last that will be able to do anything about it".
Growing our Future Food: Crops by Wageningen University was very interesting but I was not able to find the time to complete it. I did watch most video's. It helped me get a better understanding of the yield gap: the difference between potential and actual production.

Fruit and Vegetable Market, picture by Emeraldhorticulture, Creative Commons

What next?
I have started with the Coursera course How green is that product? Introduction to Life Cycle environmental Assessment. After completing this course I will be better equipped to decide if Palm Oil should be used for Biodiesel.
EdX Course The Ethics of Eating will help me understand the social and environmental impact of consuming processed food that contains Palm Oil. Under which conditions would it be preferred over animal fats or other vegetable oils?
The third series of courses and workshops will show me how palm oil is used in The Netherlands. In April I will attend a meeting on how the Dutch food industry will achieve its goal of 100% sustainable palm oil by the end of 2015. In June I will participate in a 4-day workshop on food & feed safety.

I regret not having found more time to study, but for the next three months I will find extra time. Very excited about above courses, and if possible I will take on more.