I’m
sure many of you may have heard something about palm oil before as it flutters in and out of the news. After learning
more about it myself I felt inclined to write a post which clearly
lays out in one place what it is, the environmental problems it causes and what we can do to help. I
recently watched a documentary called ‘Before the Flood’ directed
by Fisher Stevens in which Leonardo DiCaprio connects with scientists,
activists and world leaders to discuss climate change and possible solutions.
Made in 2016, the documentary is up-to-date, shocking and really heart-breaking. One aspect of
the film focuses on the production of palm oil and rainforest
destruction. It was after this that I really began to read more about palm oil specifically. Although I knew palm oil was bad, and even witnessed some of the destruction myself when travelling through Malaysia (pictured above), I was still unaware of the full extent of the destruction.
What
is palm oil?
Palm
oil is a substance derived from palm oil trees, 85% of the worlds palm oil is produced and exported from Indonesia and Malaysia. The Sustainable Palm Oil Association claim the
product can be found in over 50% of consumer goods in most supermarkets, from
foods like baked beans, frozen pizza, margarine and milk chocolate, to soaps,
shampoos, detergents, cosmetics and fuel. Palm oil has quickly become a desirable
product to many companies as it is so cheap to extract, in the last decade
global palm oil production has doubled.
How
is this affecting the environment?
In
order to create room to grow palm oil trees, vast expanses of rainforest are
being cleared in Asia, Africa and North and South America. Currently, palm oil
plantations cover more than 27 million hectares of land, and this number is
constantly growing. Palm-oil based fuels are also three times worse for the climate
than traditional fossil fuels! Rainforests are bulldozed and burnt down which in turn drives out animals such as orangutans, elephants and tigers - many species of
which are endangered. In the last 20 years more than 80% of orangutan habitat has been intentionally destroyed to make room for these plantations,
and over 50,000 orangutans have been driven out or killed.
Another
huge issue with these plantations is that they often violate the human rights of
indigenous people. Those who have inhabited the land and
protected the rainforests for generations are often brutally driven from their homes, and this is happening even on palm oil plantations marketed as organic and sustainable. It’s truly
heartbreaking to read the stories of those who have lost their homes and their
lives as they knew it, to this.
How
can you help?
The
good news is there are ways you can help. Ultimately, palm oil is produced because of
consumer demand, so as consumers we can take immediate action and stop buying
products with it in. I urge you to check food labels and rethink some
purchases or simply switch for a different brand. The
independent posted an article in January of this year reporting that the Co-op supermarket removed 200 products which contain
palm oil from its shelves last May, just one example which shows that we, the public, can spark change when we change our buying habits. I’ve linked a website below which lists a bunch of products common to your supermarket shop that don’t contain palm oil.
You can also help by signing various petitions, writing letters to companies and spreading the word to other people. You can also avoid consuming palm oil by simply cooking more home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients!
You can also help by signing various petitions, writing letters to companies and spreading the word to other people. You can also avoid consuming palm oil by simply cooking more home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients!
There
is still a long way to go. In 2004 a law was passed in the EU
which states companies must disclose their use of palm oil in food products - however in other products such as cosmetics and detergents they can disguise
palm oil by using other chemical names. Luckily, you can search
online to see if a product contains palm oil.
It isn’t
solely a Western issue, India and China currently use more palm oil
than the EU. Still, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth changing our habits. As
a collective we have a voice and we should still endeavour to do our bit - the world can only change so long as a mass of
individuals make a change. It’s in our hands.
This
is of course just one environmental and humanitarian issue, loads of information about other issues and how to get involved can be found at https://www.change.org/petitions and
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions.
More info & links:
Say no to palm oil: http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/
The Orangutan Project: https://www.theorangutanproject.org.uk/get-involved/palm-oil-resistance/
Before
the Flood documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcTX9qy4GoU
Palm-oil free products: http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/shoppingethically/palmoilfreelist.aspx
Petitions
you can sign to help today!
