Palm Oil: The Worst Thing Since Sliced Bread?
You're out doing your weekly shop at the supermarket, grabbing the essentials (whilst sneaking in a few luxuries). You've got your organic vegetables, free range eggs and locally sourced milk. Your "environmental folklore", as sustainability strategist Leyla Acaroglu calls it, is buzzing with excitement. (Click here to see Leyla's insightful TEDTalk which encourages us to re-think what classifies as a 'green' product).
Even at the till, you refuse plastic carrier bags because you're the environmental superhero who remembered their recycled and reusable bags. #winning.
But, alas, every hero has their kryptonite.
You take the biodiesel bus home, tuck into a vegan sandwich whilst you read this blog post and realise your downfall: Palm Oil.
Hidden in around half of all packaged goods in supermarkets, palm oil is probably the most widely used and little known culprit of environmental degradation. It is in detergent and margarine, lipstick and sliced bread. Much to the environmentalists dissatisfaction, palm oil is often disguised under hundreds of pseudonyms from Vegetable Fat to Glyceryl to Sodium Laureth Sulfate, making it difficult to ascertain whether something is or is not Palm Oil free. You can read more about Palm Oil in one of my earlier blog posts.
The above image was obtained from a brilliant little WWF webpage. It explains why palm oil is used in a variety of modern-day essentials. From the webpage you can access WWF's Palm Oil Scorecard 2016, a read I would highly recommend. The international charity has analysed 137 manufacturers and retailers and ranked their efforts in using and producing sustainable palm oil. For those in the UK like me, foods from Associated British Foods (Allinsons bread, Jordans Cereals), Warburtons and Marks and Spencer's ranked highly whereas Tayto (Mr. Porky pork scratchings and Tayto crisps) failed to respond to WWF's inquiry.
Now, anyone who is familiar with my blog will know that I am skeptical over the words 'sustainable palm oil.' One of the main issues is that if someone asks "is sustainable palm oil good or bad?" No-one can give a 100% positive answer (except, of course, when economic and political biases are involved). The difficulties were outlined in 2016 when the third-largest palm oil trader globally, IOI, was suspended by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) after it was found that unsustainable acts of peatland and rainforest destruction took place alongside child labour and the exploitation of workers.
By definition, an act can be sustainable if no more land is deforested. Yet, it doesn't mean that valuable, indigenous lands have not been deforested in the first place. 'Sustainable' does not mean that riots don't occur and it does not mean that monoculture and pesticide and herbicide use does not take place. This is partly due to the difficulties in regulating such acts (due to corruption and a lack of funding), a lack of scientific understanding on the long-term effects of monoculture and it is also due to gross consumer demand providing major economic drives for cheaper goods, rather than truly sustainable alternatives.
So how can your environmental conscious overcome this battle?
In an environmentalist's utopia, living off the land you stand on would be the perfect solution. Grow your own food and bake your own bread. Yet, lift your face away from these words and look around you. Whatever screen you may be reading this blog on represents to me that society has come way too far to go back to how it once was. Similarly, our food chains are so heavily embedded in Palm Oil today that stopping its use completely we inevitably invoke havoc on a global scale. Palm Oil allows food to be cheap, upon which our sprawling human population is upheld. Our alternative: certified sustainable palm oil.
I find it difficult to be assured by claims of sustainable palm oil. Yet I am in no doubt that the 20% of global palm oil carrying with the RSPO certified sustainable palm oil label is the best choice possible.
There are, also, numerous palm-oil free alternatives breaking out into mainstream supermarkets. Take peanut butter and soaps from Lush cosmetics.
We can still live the luxury life. It's not a matter of 'imagining' a world Palm Oil free anymore. It's a matter of bringing he Palm Oil free world to you.
H _ M
:)
Bibliography:
https://www.ted.com/talks/leyla_acaroglu_paper_beats_plastic_how_to_rethink_environmental_folklore
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/major-palm-oil-company-promises-protect-forests-20170428/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/palm-oil-scorecard-2016
https://uk.lush.com/article/palm-oil-free-soap-bases
Even at the till, you refuse plastic carrier bags because you're the environmental superhero who remembered their recycled and reusable bags. #winning.
But, alas, every hero has their kryptonite.
You take the biodiesel bus home, tuck into a vegan sandwich whilst you read this blog post and realise your downfall: Palm Oil.
Hidden in around half of all packaged goods in supermarkets, palm oil is probably the most widely used and little known culprit of environmental degradation. It is in detergent and margarine, lipstick and sliced bread. Much to the environmentalists dissatisfaction, palm oil is often disguised under hundreds of pseudonyms from Vegetable Fat to Glyceryl to Sodium Laureth Sulfate, making it difficult to ascertain whether something is or is not Palm Oil free. You can read more about Palm Oil in one of my earlier blog posts.
 |
| Where can Palm Oil be found? Source: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil |
Now, anyone who is familiar with my blog will know that I am skeptical over the words 'sustainable palm oil.' One of the main issues is that if someone asks "is sustainable palm oil good or bad?" No-one can give a 100% positive answer (except, of course, when economic and political biases are involved). The difficulties were outlined in 2016 when the third-largest palm oil trader globally, IOI, was suspended by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) after it was found that unsustainable acts of peatland and rainforest destruction took place alongside child labour and the exploitation of workers.
By definition, an act can be sustainable if no more land is deforested. Yet, it doesn't mean that valuable, indigenous lands have not been deforested in the first place. 'Sustainable' does not mean that riots don't occur and it does not mean that monoculture and pesticide and herbicide use does not take place. This is partly due to the difficulties in regulating such acts (due to corruption and a lack of funding), a lack of scientific understanding on the long-term effects of monoculture and it is also due to gross consumer demand providing major economic drives for cheaper goods, rather than truly sustainable alternatives.
So how can your environmental conscious overcome this battle?
In an environmentalist's utopia, living off the land you stand on would be the perfect solution. Grow your own food and bake your own bread. Yet, lift your face away from these words and look around you. Whatever screen you may be reading this blog on represents to me that society has come way too far to go back to how it once was. Similarly, our food chains are so heavily embedded in Palm Oil today that stopping its use completely we inevitably invoke havoc on a global scale. Palm Oil allows food to be cheap, upon which our sprawling human population is upheld. Our alternative: certified sustainable palm oil.
I find it difficult to be assured by claims of sustainable palm oil. Yet I am in no doubt that the 20% of global palm oil carrying with the RSPO certified sustainable palm oil label is the best choice possible.
 |
| The RSPO Label - assuring you that your product contains sustainably produced palm oil Source: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil |
We can still live the luxury life. It's not a matter of 'imagining' a world Palm Oil free anymore. It's a matter of bringing he Palm Oil free world to you.
H _ M
:)
Bibliography:
https://www.ted.com/talks/leyla_acaroglu_paper_beats_plastic_how_to_rethink_environmental_folklore
https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/major-palm-oil-company-promises-protect-forests-20170428/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/palm-oil-scorecard-2016
https://uk.lush.com/article/palm-oil-free-soap-bases
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