In recent years, the demand for palm oil has increased, thus, so has the damaging way palm oil is obtained. Palm oil is used in approximately 50% of the packaged foods you will find in supermarkets (according to WWF) and found in 1 in 10 of all products sold in Britain (according to an article by the Guardian). The reason why palm oil is in such high demand? It’s because of the multifaceted and valuable properties this vegetable holds. Palm oil gives products a longer shelf life due to its resistance to oxidation property, it is also semi-solid at room temperature which allows it to keep spreads spreadable. Palm oil also helps to give fried foods a crunchy texture, it is a great addition to add to foods as it is odourless and colourless.
So, what is the problem? The problem is that palm oil is a major contributor to deforestation. As demand increases for palm oil, the amount of deforestation increases, which has major impacts on the habitats of already endangered species, prominently the Orangutan, Pygmy elephant & Sumatran rhino, whose habitats are being destroyed in order to obtain this edible vegetable. Additionally to this, the cutting down and burning of the trees contributes to global warming, as millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases are being thrown out into the atmosphere, thus, contributing to climate change. The cutting down of trees and clearing of land is thought to contribute to 11% of greenhouse gas emissions. Not only this, but the palm oil industry has been known to exploit its workers and use child labour to extract this vegetable. Therefore, palm oil brings dangers with the way it is being obtained, on a large, unsustainable scale.
Despite this, an alternative vegetable oil is not able to be used as a replacement as any other alternative would take up between four to ten times more land, thus, would create more issues and endanger more species. Additionally, many farmers rely on producing palm oil and it is a massive contributor to GDP for emerging economies. Therefore, it is accepted that palm oil is still a necessary product to be used in much of our food, however, organisations started to push for it to be extracted sustainably and have ordered for the problem to be dealt with urgently.
In 2012, the UK government acknowledged responsibility as they, ‘set a commitment for 100% of palm oil used in the UK to be from sustainable sources that do not harm nature or people.’ In 2016, the UK had made great progress with this as ‘75% of the total palm oil imports to the UK were sustainable,’ a progress which was noted as a positive step, but the promise of reaching 100% still remains unmet.
Nestle was boycotted in 2010 by campaigners for its unsustainable use of palm oil in its chocolate, with Greenpeace, a non-government organisation who campaigns for environmental rights, releasing a video representing the visceral, frightful reality of using palm oil. Greenpeace activists also protested outside of KitKat’s headquarters and surrounded their premises dressed in orangutan outfits. Since then, the reaction from customers of Nestle and other large brands who extract palm oil unsustainably, has caused a shift from the brands, who promised to only use sustainable sources of palm oil by 2020. The year is now 2020 and time is running out for a change to be made.
Greenpeace has stated on their website that, “The big brands need to investigate their palm oil suppliers and only buy from responsible growers that aren’t destroying forests or exploiting local people. Pressure from Greenpeace supporters has forced Wilmar, the biggest palm oil trader in the world, to announce a plan to map and monitor its suppliers. If Wilmar sticks to its word, other traders will be forced to do the same and palm oil producers that destroy forests will have no one to sell to.”
Nestle states on their website that, it is “committed to using 100% responsibly sourced palm oil by 2020” and that 79% of palm oil was ‘responsibly resources’ in 2019.
Last week it was announced that the UK government have 'set new rules to curb deforestation in supply chains.' These plans will consist of UK businesses proving that zero illegal deforestation is used in their products or occurred during the supply line. Large companies will have to publish where many of their commodities, such as cocoa and palm oil originated from. However, critics are not convinced these plans will work with many saying that the plan does not detail what penalties will be put in place.
Concerns over illegal deforestation have grown this year as deforestation in the Amazon has increased.
Many environment campaigners view this as a positive step, nonetheless, one they are taking with caution, until their is evidence that real action has been taken.
BBC News reported that in June, ministers committed an £16m in funding to help scale up environmentally friendly farming and forest conservation in the Amazon. The government say they are prepared to drastically help reduce illegal deforestation. The news of their plans comes a year before the UK is due to hold the UN climate conference.
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