(Maybe your environmental knowledge isn't the best - "What on Earth is palm oil?" - but you happen to think orang-utans are utterly adorable? In that case you're still going to want to read on....)
This is a short introduction to palm oil. It's unlikely to answer all of your questions, but it should help to condense some of the most important points into one handy place. I've tried to keep this as simple and concise as possible. I will likely expand on many of these points in later blog posts. This isn't 'Everything You Will Ever Need To Know About Palm Oil', this is simply 'Palm Oil 101'...
What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is a type of vegetable oil, produced from the fruit of oil palms. Palm kernel oil is produced from the kernel (seed) of the fruit. Both types are high in saturated fat (bad fat!). Palm oil is found in roughly 40 to 50% of all supermarket products. From bars of soap to bars of chocolate, from margarine, to shampoo, to baby food. Most processed foods, health/beauty and cleaning products contain palm oil in some form. It is cheap and produces high yields, so is usually favoured over other types of oil. 85% of palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Why is it bad?
Deforestation - Vast swathes of forest are destroyed every day in order to make way for palm oil production. This is causing habitat loss and threatening critically endangered species such as orang-utans and the Sumatran tiger. If deforestation continues at current rates, these beautiful creatures could be extinct in the wild in as little as five years.
Climate Change - Forests are often cleared by burning, which releases smoke (carbon) into the atmosphere. Much of Indonesia's forests are over peat bogs, which are drained for palm oil production, releasing up to 10 times as much carbon as an area without peat bogs.
Social - Palm oil production has been linked to illegal immigration, slave labour, terrible working conditions and child exploitation. Land is often illegally stolen from indigenous people to be cleared for plantations. The indigenous people must either move on, or become plantation workers themselves.
Animal Welfare - Deforestation makes it easier for poachers and smugglers to capture animals for the illegal pet trade, for tourist entertainment, as souvenirs/trophies or using body parts for medicinal purposes.
Health - Palm oil is high in saturated fats and several studies have linked palm oil consumption to health issues such as cardiovascular disease.
What can I do?
This is by no means an exhaustive list. I encourage you to do your own reading on the subject and form your own conclusions, but if you want to stand up to unsustainable palm oil production, here are some ways you can help:
- Avoid processed packaged foods wherever possible, especially snack foods.
- Always check the ingredients. In the UK it is now illegal to list 'vegetable oil' rather than the specific type of oil, so you will actually see the words 'palm oil' on a lot of products. Look out for alternatives such as sunflower, rapeseed or coconut oil etc
- Learn some of the other names that palm oil can go by including Sodium Laureth/Lauryl Sulfate, Palmate, Palmitic Acid, Glyceryl Stearate, Stearic Acid. Unfortunately there are at least 30 different names for the stuff, so if in doubt, ask! It only takes a minute to google a company and send a quick email. Or post to their facebook/twitter page so your question is public and will help others make informed decisions too!
- Avoid the mega-corporations and snack food giants. The likes of Nestle, PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble always put profits before the environment.
- Don't just boycott, let the companies know your reasons. If enough of us boycott, the companies might notice a dip in sales but how will they know WHY sales are down unless we tell them. The first email might take some time but after that it's a simple copy-paste job.
- Adopt an orang-utan: http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk
- Volunteer abroad: http://www.thegreatprojects.com
One final thing I must mention - there is an organisation known as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) whose members use only certified sustainable palm oil (you will see this mentioned on packaging, look out for it next time you are shopping), but there is currently debate raging over whether they are actually doing enough to help, or if they are just there to justify the rapid expansion of the palm oil industry. That is definitely another post for another time, but I felt it was important to at least mention!
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New here? Click to find out what this blog is all about!
I had no idea Palm oil was so bad! I used to work in a chip shop and it was used there all of the time! I will definitely stop eating chips now, well I will ask what oil they use and go somewhere else if it's Palm oil
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading Gareth! It's a great idea to ask what kind of oil they use! Not all chip shops use palm oil so you don't necessarily need to boycott them all! While you're asking find out if their cod is fished sustainably too! ;)
DeleteThanks for reading Gareth! It's a great idea to ask what kind of oil they use! Not all chip shops use palm oil so you don't necessarily need to boycott them all! While you're asking find out if their cod is fished sustainably too! ;)
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