Why we SAY NO TO PALM OIL and you should too!

Palm oil is a vegetable oil abundantly found in every-day processed food and non-food products such as baked goods, cosmetics or biofuel. It’s cheap and quite healthy if consumed in moderation. Its molecular structure is quite similar to coconut oil.

Cool! A cheaper version of the coconut oil! I’ll sign-up for that, is what you may think right now. Don’t be too quick in making the switch. If you have never heard about the impact palm oil has on people and the environment, read on! I’m sure you will join me and thousands of other people who SAY NO TO PALM OIL.

What Is Palm Oil?

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Palm oil shouldn’t be confused with coconut oil. They both come from a different tree and look quite different too. Palm oil is obtained from the plum-like, red fruit of the oil palm tree which contains one single seed or kernel. The small plum fruits grow in large bunches that can weigh up to 50 kilograms or a 100 pounds.

Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit and can be found in many of your food sources. Palm kernel oil, on the other hand, comes from the seeds. Though you will see palm oil popping up in many baked goods or other processed foods, palm kernel oil is mainly used in the manufacturing of a broad range of cosmetics.

Why Is it so popular?

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Many food producing companies have made the switch from animal and vegetable oils to palm oil. Since the tree is a very productive crop, the yield is far better than other vegetable oils. Plus, it is cheap to make.

Why We Should Take Action

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Since it is so cheap, the demand for palm oil is rising every day. To feed this growing need tropical rainforest and peatlands in Southeast Asia have to make room for palm oil plantations.

To give you an idea, the global palm oil production has doubled over the past decades. An estimated 50 million tons of palm oil is produced every year. New plantations constantly emerge and the old ones are expanding their territories, replacing millions of hectares dense, bio-diverse rainforest.

In Indonesia alone, more than 6 million hectares is dedicated to the production of palm oil. And it doesn’t stop there. They are constantly making room for more.

In the past, efforts have been made to set up a sustainable industry through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Unfortunately, deforestation continues at a fast pass. And what's even worse, these members don’t even seem to care.

RSPO members include Unilever, Cadbury’s, Nestle, Tesco, Cargill, and ADM. Even though these are all members of the RSPO, they are taking no steps to avoid deforestation, child labor, animal burning, and other criminal practices.

Pristine jungles and land from local people have been taken without their consent. So while the RSPO creates the illusion of helping nature and sustainably producing palm oil to justify their expansion, nature still has to make way and children are still used to increase their profits.

The Impact Of Palm Oil Production On Nature And Its Inhabitants

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Deforestation

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In Indonesia and Malaysia, where palm oil production is leaving the biggest marks, a piece of the rainforest the size of 300 football fields is cleared nearly each hour to make way for the production of this one cheap, widely used vegetable oil!

What makes it worse, they get the full support of the government. They sell the ground to wealthy foreigners who log it first and sell the precious hardwoods, including teak, sandalwood, and ebony. Then the remaining vegetation is burned down to the ground to make way for rows of palm oil trees.

Child Labor

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To work these plantations, locals, including thousands of children are hired. They have to work for very little pay and in unsafe conditions. Many of them end up in the palm oil production through debt bondage or human trafficking.

Short-Term Solution

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After only 20 to 50 years the soil will be drained of all the nutrients, leaving the land barren and broken. Palm oil production is no long term sustainable production method and will only lead to more deforestation in the future.

Heavy Impact On Wildlife

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Since 300 football fields of rainforest disappear every hour, many animal species are losing their natural habitat. Sumatran tigers, clouded leopards, orangutans, Asian rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, sun bears, elephants, and many more are in the danger zone. In the last 20 years, palm oil production has destroyed 90 percent of the homes of these animals.

And if losing ground isn't bad enough already, thousands of animals are burned alive while they burn down the remaining plantation to make room for palm oil trees. Since these animals are pushed away, tigers and other dangerous animals are now living closer to humans and villages.

With all their natural food sources being killed, tigers often venture into villages and attack humans. Then these tigers get the stamp man-eater and are killed for it! But can you really blame the animal? In our selfishness, we are taking everything in this world while never asking ourselves the question if this is normal.

Global Warming

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River pollution and erosion are two common symptoms of palm oil production. Furthermore, the constant fires to burn down the remaining trees produce a toxic smoke which poisons the plantation workers and the smoke is also a huge contributor to greenhouse gas production and global warming.

Also, fewer trees mean less carbon dioxide being filtered out of the air to produce fresh air for us to breathe.

Palm Oil Is Everywhere. And it is hiding under at least 25 sneaky names on the food label

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Palm oil and its derivatives are being used in most of our processed, packaged foods and cosmetics. Products containing palm oil have a longer shelf life than other vegetable oils and butter. And it also makes the cosmetics creamier.

You can find palm oil in bread, biscuits, chocolate, ice cream, sandwich spreads, chips, instant noodles, cooking oils, margarine, TV dinners, shampoo, lipstick, shower gels liquid detergents, biofuels, etc.
And this is just a tip of the iceberg.

Though fresh foods are always best under any circumstance, if you buy processed, packaged foods make sure to scan the label for the following sneaky aliases of palm oil:

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1. Elaeis guineensis
2. Ethyl palmitate
3. Glyceryl
4. Hydrogenated palm glycerides
5. Octyl palmitate
6. Palm fruit oil
7. Palm kernel
8. Palm kernel oil
9. Palm stearine
10. Palmate
11. Palmitate
12. Palmitic acid
13. Palmitoyl oxostearamide
14. Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3
15. Palmityl alcohol
16. Palmolein
17. Sodium kernelate
18. Sodium laureth sulfate
19. Sodium lauryl lactylate/sulphate
20. Sodium lauryl sulfate
21. Sodium palm kernelate
22. Stearate
23. Stearic acid
24. Vegetable fat
25. Vegetable oil

ARE YOU READY TO SAY NO TO PALM OIL AND HELP SAVE PLANET EARTH???

Thanks for reading! Until next time!

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL!
PICTURE(s): Google, Stock photos

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