In the weeks since the controversial Iceland advert was banned, palm oil has become a widely talked about subject, fuelling debates on sustainability and its place in our everyday lives. If you haven’t seen the advert, make sure to give it a watch for some heartfelt words about the effects of deforestation from Rang-tan.
In the video Rang-Tan states that we humans have ‘destroyed all of [their] trees for [our] food and [our] shampoo.’ This came as a shock. I’d never even heard of palm oil and as I picked up various bottles around my house, I quickly realised it was in most things I owned, so why didn’t I know anything about it?
What is it?
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil grown from trees in Africa, Asia, North and South America. More specifically, it is produced from the fruit of these trees, but once the trees grow too high, they are cut down. This contributes majorly to deforestation and loss of habitat of already endangered species, like our orangutan.
Why do we use it?
Palm oil has various properties that make it extremely versatile, hence why it is used in so many products.
- It is semisolid at room temperature – useful in lipsticks, chocolates, spreads.
- Resistant to oxidisation, so foods keep longer.
- Stable are high temperatures- useful in ice cream.
What now?
I know, I couldn’t live without these things either, but this doesn’t mean we have to. Just like any discussion about sustainability, it’s not a clean cut as to what is good or bad for the environment. After all, palm oil is used to make biofuel, often acknowledged as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels. This also leads back to one of the reasons why palm oil is used so much in the first place. Palm oil produces far more oil per acre of land than its alternatives. For example, for the same amount of land for palms, 10 times more oil can be produced than the alternative soybean plants.
So, we seem to have found ourselves at a crossroads. We can’t completely rid ourselves of palm oil but don’t want more of Rang-Tan’s friends without a home.
Sustainable palm oil may be our solution. In 2002, WWF establish the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which certifies palm oil plantations as sustainable and promotes the use of such produces. While the RSPO have been controversial in the past for not being strict enough on non-compliance of their policies, it is the largest body for sustainable palm oil use.
Make sure to look out for companies who have made pledges to reduce palm oil use or make the switch to more sustainable oil and be aware of the ingredients in your new purchases. With a final nod to the Iceland advert, let us ‘share [Rang-Tang’s] story far and wide so others can fight too’.
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