Talk:Heart of palm

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This section sounds rather POV:

Over the years, consumption of hearts of palm have caused much controversy, due to the processby which the vegetable is obtained.

I noticed that someone marked it as citation needed. I'd suggest the sentence be removed.

I suppose I'd feel differently if this meant harvesting 100 year old palm trees, however, I would think it's likely that these baby palms are grown explicitly for the purpose of consumption.

After all, I'd be surprised if the wikipedia article about corn stated that it's controversial to harvest corn, because it's not given a chance to go to seed. Similarly, harvesting and consuming an onion bulb kills the plant, but I don't think that would be viewed as controversial.

Thoughts? magicalspirits 21:42, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Go for it. If there's a reliable source for it, it can be put back in once that's been found ... RandomP 18:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

This isnt an article on stem cells, its a darn vegetable, I'm getting rid of the sentence.

It doesn't matter that "its just a darn vegetable". If you have nothing to contribute, then just don't. I came to this article because according to other sources, palm heart harvesting is one of the reasons that the Forest Coconut is going extinct. (There were just ten full grown trees that have been observed AFAIK.) So the sentence IMO deserves to be in the article.24.83.178.11 12:34, 26 April 2007 (UTC)BeeCier

[edit] Controversy

The main reason it's controversial isn't that it involves cutting down the palm tree, it's that a great deal of the growing land is cleared from rainforest.

There are still many locales in South America where (non-clumping i.e. non-sustainable) palms are cut down to harvest hearts-of-palm. This has a deleterious effect on local wildlife (there are a number of birds which feed on the fruit/seeds of these palms as well as contributing to deforestation. Palms of this type can be well in excess of 30 years old, so comparisons with e.g. corns or onions is a little foolish. Info from local experience and The Economist.

[edit] Harvestable without killing the palm

Harvesting Bactris palms for palm heart does not kill the palm as it is a clumping palm and will keep suckering and producing. There is now a sustainable industry in Hawaii for growing Fresh Heart of Palm for the gourmet chefs.75.209.240.155 17:30, 10 October 2006 (UTC)Lesley Hill Wailea Agricultural Group, Inc. Growers of Fresh Hawaiian Heart of Palm

[edit] Brette Parker

I take issue with the following sentence:

The most common method of preparing Hearts of Palm, known as the Brette Parker method, is adding lime and chili sauce.

I've never heard of this method of preparing heart of palm (the most common preparation, I would imagine, is simply using it in a salad), nor of a person called Brette Parker - this seems to be an attempt at self-promotion.

Thweeda 17:05, 18 July 2007 (UTC)TVW