i'm blaming arabs and i'm not wrong but i should extrapolate. this garbage is mostly grown in the east indies, but is native to africa. the movement of the palm genome is one of the agricultural effects of arabic colonialism, and the item is a staple in arabic diets, but it's not from arabia, it's from africa. you'll note that the east indies is a muslim region, today, although it was historically hindu, buddhist and animist (like essentially all of africa). so, the historic market for palm oil is arabs and people consuming arabic culture diets. palm and coconut oil are hugely responsible for the high obesity levels in arabic societies, which are the only societies in the world with higher obesity rates than the united states.
however, palm fat has in recent years also become popular as a replacement for trans fat, which is rightfully banned almost everywhere today, and in the process has become very cheap as a result of the economies of scale in fast food. the result is that it's finding it's way into other supply chains as a replacement for other products.
in the case of margarine, palm oil has almost completely replaced sunflower oil industry-wide and this has had a negative effect on taste and texture. there are other changes in the product and i will admit that i may be over-attributing the shift to the palm oil, but the increases in saturated fat, decreases in vitamin e and more butter-like taste and appearance in the walmart margarine, and similar changes industry wide (including in the irresistible food basic house brand and the lactantia/olivina brand i use to buy before i noticed the decrease in vitamin e on the label in one and then the other, and just said "fuck it" and started buying the cheaper walmart brand) have made margarine a food product that i no longer feel is acceptable as a standard part of my diet. it's the change in taste and texture to a more buttery taste and less olive-y taste that's the last straw for me.
as stated, i'll be moving to a 100% canola-olive oil mix for cooking and to flavour pastas and salads, which is a return to the excellent mix of polyunsaturated fats and the lower amounts of saturated fats that were once standard industry wide in margarine in canada, and to pre-made palm-free and additive-free hummus as a replacement for margarine in sandwiches, toast and other applications where i would have previously spread margarine on bread or toast.
i would encourage health canada to take steps to slow or eliminate the use of palm oil in food before it results in increased obesity rates.