Palm Oil, the real cost
- Bailee Ryan
- Jun 2, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 3, 2019
What is it?
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees native to West Africa. Palm oil has become the world’s most widely produced and consumed vegetable oil, and is now found in over half of all supermarket products.
Where is it from?
It was introduced to South-East Asia from West Africa over 100 years ago as an ornamental tree crop. Nowadays 85% of the worlds palm oil supply comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, but 42 other countries also produce it.
What's the problem?
These South East Asian countries produce over 90% of the world’s total palm oil. They are renowned for their remarkable plant and wildlife biodiversity however, the problem lies in the ILLEGAL DEFORESTATION of rainforests to clear land to produce palm oil and make money from its sale. Rainforests are burned to clear land to grow the palm oil, which is a monoculture that can't sustain the rich biodiversity of the rainforest. This deforestation threatens the survival of more than half of the worlds 10 million species who are estimated to live in the rainforest. Countless species of flora and fauna, including the orangutan, elephant and the Asian Rhino are on the way to extinction as they no longer have a home without the rainforest and therefore cannot survive.
Destroying the rainforests for palm oil not only affects wildlife, but humans too. The Auckland Zoo has said that "Rainforests act as the lungs of our planet; they recycle carbon dioxide into oxygen, store water, prevent soil erosion and protect biodiversity, but they’re under serious threat." This forest loss means millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. There also remains some exploitation of workers and child labour.
It’s estimated that 98% of Indonesian forest will be gone in 9 years due to palm oil plantations.
What products contain palm oil?
Palm oil can be found in many products found in the supermarket including frozen pizzas, baking, biscuits, chocolate and margarine, as well as cosmetics such as body creams, soaps, makeup, candles and detergents.
What can you do?
Avoiding palm oil isn't the solution to stopping deforestation to produce it.
Work is being done to stop palm oil production from damaging the planet. A group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2003 to get those in the palm oil industry to work together to do this. Members of the group are given strict guidelines about how they produce their palm oil.
Certified palm oil protects the environment and the local communities who depend on it for their livelihoods, so that palm oil can continue to play a key role in protecting the people and the planet.
The best thing you can do to help is to buy RSPO products and become a mindful consumer. There currently aren't any New Zealand specific apps available to help you do this so your best option is to check the product for palm oil yourself using the guide for names for palm oil below, and then google whether the company/brand is RSPO. This way you can get to know the good and not so good palm oil users. If it doesn't say, I would avoid purchasing the product.
Brands that use palm oil can be sneaky and use a different name to represent the product.
Palm oil can be listed as:
Palm oil kernel
Anything containing the words “Palmitate” or “Palmate”
Elaeis Gunieensis (scientific name for the oil palm plant)
Hydrated Palm Glycerides
Hexadecanoic or Palmitic Acid
Substances likely to be palm oil:
Vegetable Oil
Anything containing the words “stearate, stearyl”
Anything containing the words “cetyl, cetearyl”
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS)
Sodium Laureth Sulphate
Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS or NaDS)
Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate
Calcium Stearoyl Lactylate
Steareth -2 and Steareth -20
Emulsifier 422, 430-436, 465-467, 470-478, 481-483, 493-495, 570
Why do we use it?
"Palm oil is an incredibly efficient crop, producing more oil per land area than any other equivalent vegetable oil crop." To get the same amount of alternative oils you would need between 4 and 10 times more land, which would lead to more deforestation or just move the problem to other countries to produce the oil. Also, palm oil is an important crop for the GDP of emerging economies and there are millions of smallholder farmers who depend on producing palm oil for their livelihood. Boycotting palm oil is not always the answer, but demanding more action to tackle the issues and go further and faster, is.
For manufacturers, buyers and consumers palm oil is a a useful ingredient, with a long shelf-life and a is low-cost ingredient, but what is the real cost?
References and for more information check out:
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