This tree offers an eco-friendly alternative to palm oil and soy

Bye-bye palm oil

The plant-based food company Terviva is studying the pongamia tree’s ability to grow in areas where the land has been degraded. What they’ve found is that it has no problem growing in poor soil conditions and requires very little water.

This will come as no surprise to those living in the Indian subcontinent, where pongamia trees are indigenous. Here, there is a long history of using pongamias to replenish soil health, as they thrive even in times of flooding and drought.

Still, pongamia beans have been historically disregarded as edible due to their strong bitter taste. They have mainly been harvested to make varnish or oil for lamps.

But on the plantation in Oahu, the Terviva team has found a unique and simple process to remove the pongamia bean’s bitterness. What results is an omega-rich oil, similar to olive oil. It is nutritionally healthier than coconut oil and contains around 25 percent saturated fat, which gives it a pleasantly smooth texture.

Although pongamia trees must mature for about four years before they can be harvested, they will go on to produce as much oil per acre as palm oil trees. They can also produce four times more beans per acre than soy.

Not to mention, they are nitrogen-fixing – meaning they restore surrounding soils – and studies have shown a single pongamia tree can sequester 767kg of carbon over a 25-year period!

An economic boost

Considering that the pongamia tree is so resilient and sustainable, Terviva’s team is excited about the economic opportunities the crop could bring to areas experiencing land degradation and even desertification.

While the effects of climate change might be narrowing growing options for farmers, the pongamia tree could be a fantastic alternative – especially once the true potential of its bean is unlocked.

Terviva’s team, which is already making plant-based snack bars and other vegan-friendly foods, is researching ways to create a flour and concentrated plant-based protein that could act as a nutritious meat substitute.

For now, the company has built relationships with communities in India to buy pongamia beans at $500 a ton. For farmers surviving off $1 a day, this new stream of income could be life-changing.

It’s an exciting venture that will surely only continue to grow as the agricultural industry begins to catch on. And it offers a valuable lesson that sustainable and climate-resilient solutions already exist in nature – if we care to look for them.