THE executive director of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) is asking the Harvard professor who called coconut oil “pure poison” and “one of the worst things” humans could consume to retract her statements and publicly apologize to the 35 countries producing and using coconut oil.
In a strongly worded statement addressed to Karin Michels, Uron Salum said her irresponsible pronouncements and “such negative comments will potentially cause harm and have a disastrous effect on the social and economic livelihood of very poor coconut-growing families around the world. Such false statements could jeopardize good commodity markets and affect farmers’ ability to sell or market their produce.”
The letter was dated August 24.
Salum said, “I am therefore officially requesting you to provide proof of this scientific evidence and/or the basis from which you have made such a bold statement.
“The very fact that over 1 billion consumers of coconut oil are all still alive and healthy today proves your claims of ‘poison’ are already wrong,” he said.
“Under this circumstance, the international coconut community demands a detailed explanation from you. If you do not have any satisfactory explanation, then we call on you to apologize publicly for your false statements and you are also to retract publicly the false statements you have made or spoken against coconut oil,” he warned.
The APCC is an intergovernmental organization established by United Nations and operating under the auspices of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap).
Membership of APCC are the national governments of 18 countries in Asia, Pacific, Africa and Caribbean. APCC relations and global reach with related coconut programs reaches up to 35 coconut-growing countries, he said.
“I am copying the APCC Scientific Advisory Committee on Health and the representatives of our 18 member-countries to inform their respective governments,” Salum said.
“I will also forward my letter to the most appropriate official from the UN bodies, including the UN, UN Escap, Food Aid Foundation, the World Health Organization, and other appropriate agencies for their information and appropriate action,” he said.
Salum said “the over 1 billion consumers of coconut oil and many thousands of healthy cultures that have used coconut and coconut oil every day for thousands of years have been insulted and offended by your claims.”