It can be difficult to keep up with the best ways to be environmentally friendly. Recently, palm oil has been placed on the chopping block. However, the palm oil issue is not widely understood. This begs the question: is palm oil bad?
Palm oil comes from the fruit of the oil palm tree, known as Elaeis guineensis to scientists. The oil palm tree is native to Africa but was brought to Southeast Asia by the British in the 1870s. Now, Indonesia and Malaysia produce 85 percent of the world’s palm oil. This is a huge percentage, especially for a place the tree isn’t native to.
The use of palm oil is more widespread than many realize. Palm oil is in 50 percent of packaged products. It’s in everything from makeup to pizza dough to laundry detergent. And for good reason: palm oil can keep products at the right consistency, it can increase their shelf life, and it has no smell or taste. In addition, it can be used as a cooking oil, like vegetable oil.
Palm oil is also used because it is harvested incredibly efficiently. According to the World Wildlife Fund, palm oil is 35 percent of the world’s vegetable oil, but only takes up 10 percent of the land. Other oils use up to 10 times as much land to get the same amount of oil.
Palm oil is not inherently bad—quite the contrary. The basic facts make it seem great, like the perfect oil product.
Unfortunately, palm oil is often produced in an inhumane or unsustainable manner. Many oil palm tree plantations use child labor. Others pay their workers so little it’s practically slavery. Furthermore, these plantations often replace rainforests, destroying acres upon acres of natural habitat. Many animals, like orangutans, are now endangered due to this activity. Cutting down trees requires a ton of energy, so many harmful hydrocarbons are released into the atmosphere. This, in turn, warms the Earth.
Luckily, palm oil can be sustainably harvested, and there are people who do so. Many small farmers make their entire living off of palm oil, which they are producing in an ethical manner. Boycotting palm oil would destroy these farmers’ livelihood and hurt their countries economies.
To me, this means that it’s not on the consumer to fix the palm oil problem. It’s on the manufacturer. They must choose to only use sustainably produced palm oil. The consumer can encourage this by buying from companies that can guarantee they’ve done so.
Palm oil is in far too many products to successfully boycott. Plus, palm oil itself is not the problem. It’s the harvesting. Clearly, it can be done in a sustainable manner, and it’s a shame it hasn’t been.
Don’t worry too much about palm oil. But if you are, consider buying from companies that can guarantee their oil is sustainable. You can check the Oil Palm Buyers Scorecard to see how your favorite brands hold up.
madison brewer 