Team:Manchester/ManagementPart4

According to recent figures, the palm oil industry as it stands today can reach only half of the production rate required to meet global demand for the vegetable oil^[1]. This means that our project could be implemented to supplement natural cultivation:

• Amyris Biotech originally planned to supplement natural artemisinin production^[2], but later announced they could completely replace Artemisia annua growth^[3]


• This is unlikely to happen with palm oil - global demand is constantly increasing and would be difficult to meet using solely synthetic biology


• Currently existing oil palm plantations could continue business as usual - the damage to the environment has already been done and clearing the plantations would result in more carbon emissions


• Synthetic palm oil would step in where further deforestation would be required - the major people affected by a ban on deforestation would be the large international investors who regularly grab land for huge financial gain^[4]


• There will always likely be a market for ‘authentic’ palm oil - some countries may entirely reject palm oil derived through synthetic biology, whilst certain individuals may opt to buy only naturally-grown palm oil


• The recent sequencing of the oil palm genome gives rise to the possibility of genetically optimised oil palms being the main horsepower of plantations of the future, with synthetic palm oil topping up the supply to meet global demand^[5]