Not My Monkey

Palm oil comes from the fruit of oil palm trees, originally native to Africa. Today, Indonesia and Malaysia are two of the 44 countries that produce palm oil, contributing to 85% of global supply. Palm oil is extremely easy to crop, with large amounts being produced in a small area of land, close to all year-round

There are two types of oil that can be produced from such trees:

• Crude palm oil: produced by squeezing the fruit
• Palm kernel oil: produced by crushing the kernel (stone) in the middle of the fruit

Palm oil is extremely versatile and, therefore, in just about everything, from chocolate to shampoo. At room temperature, it is semi-solid, making it ideal for spreads; its oxidisation resistance gives products a longer shelf-life; and it is colourless and odourless, making it invisible. The uniqueness of this crop, paired with its efficient harvesting, makes it difficult to replace. However, it is a major driver for deforestation, which not only contributes to climate change but endangers countless species. There is also evidence that palm oil suppliers exploit workers and engage in child labour to keep production costs low.

Like many unsustainable initiatives, there are sustainable alternatives to producing palm oil, but, as we know, it is not realistic to cease production. Many communities depend on palm oil farming to survive. Furthermore, producing alternative oils (e.g., coconut or sunflower) would take 4-10 times more land than palm oil currently uses, shifting the problem to a different and larger part of the world. Therefore, rather than shifting the problem, we need to address the point at which palm oil becomes a problem, and to no surprise, it’s with the producers and retailers of goods. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) created a standard for companies (either producers or buyers) to follow, this includes robust policies against deforestation and consequently conserving local ecosystems and buying and using RSPO-certified palm oil.

When shopping, look out for this logo; it means the palm oil within the product is certified by RSPO, and subsequently, actions to protect workers, local communities and the environment are being taken.

Boycotting palm oil actually has the opposite desired effect. Instead, it is better to understand which products/businesses use certified sustainable palm oil and switch to those. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has created a Palm Oil Scorecard to help make these swaps! It’s like energy, we don’t want to cease use of energy, its impossible to do so, but investing in alternative sustainable procurement systems will provide justice and security in the long term. Palm oil is no different.