Palm Oil: A Rainforest in your Shopping
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01. 6.07
In yesterday's post on palm oil, commenter Dug asked "what is devious about using palm oil to replace hydrogenated oils? " - A couple of things, that we have covered on TreeHugger before. It is being widely used to replace trans-fats, but most of the cheap stuff is palm kernel oil, which is high in saturated fats. Studies have shown that "in terms of blood cholesterol, palm oil is somewhat more harmful than the average U.S. dietary fat and far more harmful than such liquid oils as olive, soy, and canola."(pdf here) The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases reccommend: "“Cut back on foods high in saturated fat or cholesterol, such as meats, butter, dairy products with fat, eggs, shortening, lard, and foods with palm oil or coconut oil.” But the health reasons are just the start; The main reason is habitat and environmental destruction.
In March we showed this poster when we wrote about a campaign to ban palm oil, and today on the op-ed page of the New York Times, there is an article titled "The Vanishing Man of the Forest" :"Indonesia has achieved its goal of becoming one of the two largest palm-oil producers and exporters in the world. But at what cost? At least half of the world’s wild orangutans have disappeared in the last 20 years; biologically viable populations of orangutans have been radically reduced in size and number; and 80 percent of the orangutan habitat has either been depopulated or totally destroyed. The trend shows no sign of abating: government maps of future planned land use show more of the same, on an increasing scale." ::New York Times
Last year TreeHugger said: "the recent panic over trans-fats has led to a dramatic increase in demand for palm oil, so manufacturers of potato chips can say TRANSFAT FREE! on their packaging. Moral of the story: do not just grab the transfat free chips or noodles- check the ingredients for palm oil (and almost all cheap ramen noodles, staple of students and treehuggers, are full of it) and only buy palm oil free. If you are fond of wasabi peas and other Asian delights, you will be shocked at how hard it is."
Read also ::Friends of the Earth
We do note that some palm oils are healthy and habitat-destruction free, (read ::Whole Foods) but how can you tell?
Twelve years ago I was part of the team at Whole Earth Foods who took the UK food manufacturing industry to task for their over-reliance on hydrogenated fat. By publicising the groundbreaking work done in the USA by Walter Willet I like to think that we helped contribute to today’s enlightened climate, where even the FSA has begun to advise consumers to avoid eating hydrogenated fat and the trans-fats it contains. Hydrogenated fat is very appealing to the food processing industry as it is solid at room temperature, has a long shelf life and tastes of very little. In many cases the obvious alternative to hydrogenated fat is palm oil, which has these same properties but contains no trans-fats and can be declared on-pack as a natural ingredient.
As a result sales of palm oil, and its derivatives palm stearine and palm olein, have been rocketing – 28 million tonnes of palm oil are produced every year, making palm oil the second most popular vegetable oil after soya oil. It is estimated that palm oil is found in every third food product – including chocolate, mayonnaise, sauces, margarine, biscuits, chips and muesli. There is plenty of palm oil in the natural food industry - not just in food but also in soaps, toothpaste, shampoo, cosmetics and detergents.
Natural food companies such as Jordan’s use palm oil throughout their product range. NPD Manager Emma Bootman explains that “we currently use a blended vegetable oil containing 60% rapeseed oil and 40% palm oil as the inclusion of the palm oil gives us an ambient stable natural vegetable oil without having to use any additives yet still giving us the shelf life quality and product texture that our consumers expect.” However Emma admits that Jordan’s have recently reduced the level of saturated fats in their organic range by replacing organic palm oil with organic high-oleic sunflower oil.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) are not happy about our increasing reliance on palm oil and they have now issued a report entitled “Greasy palms – palm oil, the environment and big business” calling for reform. The international trade in palm oil is held to be responsible for loss of tropical rainforest in Indonesia where palm acreage has increased by 118 percent in the past eight years. Frequently indigenous peoples land has been stolen and given to companies for the development of palm oil plantations. Human rights abuses and violent conflict are said to be commonly associated with this land theft. Biodiversity too is decimated, with 80-100% of mammals, birds and reptiles being destroyed.
Unsurprisingly the palm oil producers see things differently. They have formed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which brings producers, food manufacturers and NGOs together to promote the growth and use of “sustainable” palm oil. In addition to the usual multi-national suspects members of the RSPO include The Body Shop and Oxfam and Aarhus of Kingston Upon Hull, formerly known as Anglia Oils. In response to the FoE report Tim Stephenson from Aarhus notes that “Both FoE and the ethical investment organisation Isis recognised that a boycott of palm oil would be neither viable or helpful. Palm oil has a complex supply chain – it is possible (but expensive) to buy identity-preserved palm oil. “ Perhaps this is why a FoE survey showed that 87% of UK companies don’t know where their palm oil comes from.
Although there is not yet an agreed definition of what constitutes “sustainability” in terms of palm oil Aarhus and their sister organisation United Plantations of Malaysia have implemented an impressive list of policies including Integrated Pest Management, use of organic fertilisers and the provision of quality housing and schools for workers. Aarhus support the Word Wildlife Fund objective that by the end of 2005 high conservation value forests, freshwater ecosystems and habitats of key species will no longer be threatened by the expansion of palm oil. This is particularly important as the demand for additional land for palm plantations is expected to be a mind-boggling 6-10 million hectares over the next 20 years.
However sales of palm oil in Europe would undoubtedly be adversely affected if GM palm oil became widely available. And yet that is what Malaysian Palm Oil Association chief executive M.R. Chandran has called for, by publicly declaring that "the priority should be to develop transgenic palms for better oil quality, yield and minimal height". To work in that direction, he added, "the industry must build alliances with established R&D institutions, universities and industry players, both locally and overseas, to make possible a quantum leap in applied and adaptive research work."
One way of avoiding GM palm oil would be to move to organic palm oil, where GM technology would be banned as a matter of course. But would sourcing organic palm oil be any better for the environment ? The organic palms that Aarhus refine into organic palm oil are grown in Columbia, far away from the problematic plantations of Indonesia. However European demand for their Soil Association-certified product is currently very small. It seems that organic palm oil remains the best bet for the concerned manufacturer and consumer, with Aarhus’s “sustainable” Malaysian palm oil the next best thing.
I find this waaaay too complex to remember while shopping. Here are my three rules. Will someone please tell me if this is off base or missing something key?
If the grease gets hard at room temperature or below, I don't eat it. If it says transfat, I don't buy it. If it says palm kernel I don't buy it.
Saturated fat is not guilty as charged of being a health villain and palm oil has a lot of healthful properties. You do not have to be afraid of natural fats that are solid at room temperature. The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov and Weston A. Price Foundation are good resources for learning about various fats in our diet
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/import_sat_fat.html
That does not exonerate the unsustainable harvesting practices and we need a way to be able to differentiate sustainably harvested foods in the marketplace.
Aren't there any alternative oils that can be sourced from less equatorial climates?
I'm not trying to kid myself into thinking that crops from say Europe can be grown, harvested processed and transported for less than the cost of the growing, harvesting, processing and transporting of palm oil plantation; but it would mean alternatives could be grown, and in my experience many shoppers still want to buy their food from their own country. (Eg In Ireland, even McDonalds advertises it's beef as 100% Irish, perhaps one positive outcome from the B.S.E. scare a few years ago).
Additionally, if it were grown within the EU, it would mean EU consumers were in a position to pressure governments into passing legislation establishing organic standards that will cover both the raw ingredients AND the food they eat.
virgin coconut oil is very good for you, promotes weight loss and even has anti-viral properties. processed, hydrogenated coconut oil, like most processed oils, is very bad for you.
The diabetes in America became an essential problem, struggle with which is priority problem American Diabetes Association WBR LeoP
The diabetes in America became an essential problem, struggle with which is priority problem American Diabetes Association WBR LeoP
How ironic, a Seventh Genration advertisement below an artical on palm oil!
Please visit this link below to find out the science behind the goodness of palm oil.
FYI there are moe than 140 nutritional studies about palm oil which has been used for 5,000 years in Africs.
http://www.mpoc.org.my/arc_nutn_250606_02.asp
Go to www.mpoc.org.my to get educated. US ignorance for palm oil is due to ignorant media writers, govt (FDA) propaganda and the strong soy lobbyists.
Give me a break, Lloyd. I'm gullible but not that gullible! Your views on palm oil smacks of ignorance. Palm kernel oil replacing trans fats? You must be kidding! It is well known that the edible oil that is extracted from the palm oil fruit is from the fruit pulp itself. Makes sense doesn't it? The fruit pulp yieds zillions of % more oil than palm kernel which is insignificant and probably harder to extract. Whatever little that I know of palm oil, I learnt from this site www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com
Palm kernel oil is extracted and used in the manufacture of non-edible purposes such as soap, parafin, etc.
Give these developing countries a break! I've lived in this part of the world and the reality is far removed from what the alarmists have painted it to be. Malaysia, for one has one of the most stringent environmental protection laws in the region. What environmental destruction? I fail to see any in all my years here!
For them to produce an oil such as palm oil, which I reckon is one of the healtiest natural oils around since it is virually trans fat free and packed with antioxidants, we should be giving them kudos intead of attacking the oil.
Best of all, palm oil is cheap and could end the world's search for an affordable and yet sustainable oil. But could that be why they are so savagely and incessantly attacked? Because they pose a threat to our own oil crops, which are far less sustainable. I smell a rat here somehow! Could it be our neo-colonialistic attitudes towards our former colonies or could the NGO's such as FOE be on the payroll of the soy or rapeseed interests?
Shennt D brings up some interesting points. Though I've never been to South East Asia I do have some friends there. One of them has a family business of palm oil cultivation in Sabah. She told me that there are many laws governing that industry, first of which they can only use agricultural land.
She's also pointed me to a website www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com which gives another perspective to the story. Maybe that's what we all need, to see both sides before deciding?
I'm just not happy with this.
I'm a self-proclaimed tree-hugger, I care less about people's health than the environment as a whole. What really, really makes me angry is the rate at which plentiful forests are being burnt (etc.) down all in the name of the ignorant consumer (and we've all been ignorant!).
What I'm interested in is the animal life being destroyed, in particular the orang-utans who 'get in the way' of such plantations.
You will never, never forgive yourself for encouraging companies like this to continue their businesses when you find groups of animal bodies - species which are already endangered - lying lifeless; burnt, buried and beaten alive. What makes you even more ashamed to be a human being is when you come across the odd individual that is just as burnt and beaten at the others, but is somehow still hanging on by a thread. All because they were surviving in a habitat which is now 'needed' for continuing the palm oil empire!
It just makes me sick..!
palm oil bush for sell we are africa we collect 342 liter of palm oil a day please mail us back if interested
Seriously, but all this palm oil bashing smacks of industry cartel action. All you tree huggers better wake up and stop being manipulated by so called NGO's like FOE, CSPI and Wetlands who'd sell their soul to the devil so long as they can get their dirty hands on the silver dollars.
I'm organizing a blog in Yuma to get the word out that palm oil is just a victim of greedy NGOs, who are serving the needs of competing edible oils.
Saturated fats indeed! We know for a fact that palm oil is low in saturated fats and high in MCT's, as well as antioxidants such as COQ10, Vitamin E, Betacarotenes etc and low in trans fats!
Climate change caused by palm oil? A load of bull if ever there was one! We know that climate change is a periodic cyclical event that occurs over the eons and no amount of human intervention can make a dent in the inexorable process of climate change.
Death to Orang Utans? Give me a break! The orang utan is the national icon of Malaysia, one of the palm oil producing countries so unjustly accused of this dastardly act. Fact is, Malaysia protects these adorable animals!
Say what? Lets all get the word out and choke off the funding to these greedy NGO's so that they cannot screw our minds ever again. Write to your Congressman, write to the President, write to your local Chamber of Commerce - get them all to stop funding these crooks! And most of all,never donate another cent to these manipulative and shady NGO's with their altruistic sounding abbrevaitions.. CSPI, FOE indeed!
The invasion of diet pills and diet recipes could be stopped by the daily use of palm oil. It might make us think twice before start taking adipex or any other diet pills.
About the health issues, Coconut Oil is prized by many for its health benefits, people are so scared of saturated fats, they are afraid of fats period and look around, people are fat! I dont think comparing palm oil to coconut oil and saying its bad is the best argument for its sustainability...the health issue may be debated.