Palm Oil Peril

For a while I’ve been wanting to write a blog entry about palm oil. This is something that may appear as an apparently innocent ingredient on the label of many products that you might find in your cupboard, from peanut butter, to cereal bars, cakes and so on. The reason many companies use this product in preference to other oil producing plants is because it is available incredibly cheaply, mainly because it is produced in poor countries, where the local people that grow it can be ripped off. Also the palm oil plant is very tough and can grow in harsher conditions than some other oil producing plants. The big problem with palm oil is that it is grown in environments where many threatened species occur, and the destruction of rainforest habitats is nearly always incurred to clear crop space for it, and palm oil plantations are not a good enough replacement habitat for most animals, the most famously being affected by this farming practice being the orang utan and the tiger, not to mention the countless species of invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, birds and flora wiped out by slash and burn forest clearance.

“Slash and Burn” is a pretty self explanatory method of forest clearance. Rainforest soil is incredibly nutrient rich as a result of the hot, humid environment and constant composting going on there. However, remove the protection of the canopy and the soil is left vulnerable to the elements, and in a few years the goodness is leached from the soil by the rain, leaving the land useless, even from growing crops, thereby creating a “need” to clear a fresh patch of land. So you can see the problems with farming in tropical forest environments including South America, Asia, Madagascar, and Africa, and understand better how quickly the rainforests of the world are being destroyed.

I’m really not trying to preach here, but I do feel it’s important that we know where the components that make up the food we consume comes from. Everyone likes to buy fair trade and so on, yet the palm oil industry is one that is creating a huge impact on the environment yet still remains virtually unheard of among the general public. To be honest, I have only become more aware of the impacts of palm oil in the last three years of giving regular tiger talks at the zoo where I currently work. Telling the public about it every day has made me research further into the matter and take more responsibility when I’m shopping. I was shocked to find palm oil as an ingredient on one of my favourite brands of cereal bar the other week, and so dutifully wrote off to the company asking why they included it the product. I received a prompt and detailed reply informing me that they use “sustainable” palm oil, but are as yet to adjust the packaging to inform the consumer of this. I did some research on sustainable palm oil and feel dubious about it. It’s still a controversial product but I suppose I cannot feel that suspicious as I am currently buying products that contain it, though I cannot understand why some companies feel it is so necessary where another brand producing the same product might use sunflower or vegetable oil instead.

I suppose the point of this post is to raise some awareness of the palm oil industry, and to ask you to all check the labels on the products you buy!

Essentially, buying products containing palm oil supports an industry that is contributing to the rapid decline and imminent extinction of tigers, orangs and their precious environments. There’s some food for thought.

For more info check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_palm_oil