Palm oil rant
I did a couple of podcasts on palm oil and am now moving back to plastic. Here’s why.
I started a podcast a few weeks ago, first focusing on plastic. I then got side-tracked a bit by palm oil. I liked the fact that “palm oil free” was such a selling point in Switzerland and thought we were doing something right.
Palm oil is not the problem
There are many benefits to palm oil. I was surprised to learn for instance that the yield of palm trees compared to other plants that could give us vegetable oil was much better. I had no idea that was the case. Also, palm oil derivates are great foaming agents. It’s what’s in our shampoo. It’s used for cooking instead of butter because it’s solid at room temperature. Palm oil got a bad rep because of how it’s produced. Entire forests where cut, orangutans lost their habitat, monocultures were created and with it plant and animal diversity lost. It’s a sad story that we’ve all hear. Now, why do I say palm oil is not the problem? Well, here’s what I found out.
Palm oil is in everything
I’d heard people say before that palm oil is in everything, but didn’t really pay too much attention to it until I saw a label on same ready-made dough that said “made with sustainable palm oil”
Put the burden on the consumer. Make them feel guilty about buying products that contain palm oil, but don’t provide any alternatives. Mainly because you know that the eco balance of any other vegetable oils is worse. Also, make it impossible for people to actually figure out if there is palm oil in a product they use, by giving palm oil derivatives 400+ names. There is a very long lists of ingredients that are derived from palm oil and it really is in everything. Most cosmetics, shampoos, shower gels, toothpaste; many foods – pretty much anything that’s processed.
Just to sum up, we’re made to feel guilty about buying products that contain palm oil while entire industries are making it nearly impossible for us to even know which products contain palm oil. That sounds like something that needs to change. Put proper freaking labels on our products!
New sources of income once people tried to stop using palm oil products
The most infuriating fact that I found was that when fossil fuel prices rose in the early 2010s, people started looking for new types of fuel. They landed on biofuels. You might all have known this, but with demand for palm oil on the decline (because we sort of started paying attention), they started to use palm oil as biodiesel. Demand in cosmetics and food goes down and off they go cutting down more forests to meet the growing demand of palm oil-based biodiesel.
Again, instead of making significant changes and actually looking for sustainable renewable energy sources they went with the quickest and cheapest option. So all this talk about wanting to save the orangutans etc. was basically just a load of bull. They want to make money, save money and make some more money ANY way they can.
Less demand world-wide – how about we reforest some areas using the money we made?
Sustainable my ass
Pardon my French, but this really pissed me off. So, to save their gravy train they create a roundtable (and the label RSPO) where all the members are actual STAKEHOLDERS in the production and/or trade of palm oil. I mean, do you need to know more than that? And the loopholes in their policy with the bar to join the label so incredibly low they might as well not have one. All the while pretending they care about anything other than their profits. It’s infuriating. Greenwashing at its best.
We can do better
The EU is working on the biodiesel topic, trying to not allow palm oil-based biodiesel to count toward the renewable energy goals, but it’s such a big industry – it’s not going to be easy, I don’t think.
What can we do? Well, I’m a bit torn about it. The way palm oil is produced is horrible in a lot of cases. However, us using less palm oil and watching what we buy won’t slow down production as the biofuel example shows. What I think we need is proper sustainable production. Such a label needs to include investments in reforestation and efforts towards regenerating diversity as well as treating the workers right. That would make products more expensive, which might in turn make us think twice about buying certain things we really don’t need.
Problem is, as long as not everybody is committed to making those changes – cheaper products will always draw more customers. And I’m not blaming them.
Also, we should start looking for alternatives. Yes, they will need more land to be grown to yield the same amount of oil, but dependence on the countries that produce palm oil is dangerous. I’m still encouraged that we have found ways to replace palm oil in some of our products – like my favorite Swiss chocolate and I do think that’s an important development as well.
Innovation always is.
Notes:
https://www.callin.com/show/knowledge-builds-bridges-NhsvgagnVq
https://www.choice.com.au/-/media/fc65758c8135414dac27bb6ddf21aa7f.ashx?jq=80&w=994&h=559
Very informative post. We can really go down the rabbit hole on Palm Oil. It is everywhere. And before I listened to your podcast, I was pretty much clueless as to loss of habitat & deforestation. So to raise awareness & start a conversation about Palm Oil is the way to go. We have choices and when we choose wisely, it will make a difference.