The thorny question of the oil palm

So this blog is actually one I wrote a few months ago in Borneo about an issue I care strongly about and I think is one on a lot of your radars. I didn't post it at the time as I had limited internet, and therefore couldn't send any helpful links etc your way, but I've just been sent the link to a petition regarding palm oil, and it reminded me that this is something I'm overdue discussing, so please excuse the misleading timescale...If you're not interested in reading it all, please at least consider clicking on the link in the green paragraph at the bottom of the page to read about the petition that has prompted me writing about this issue. Either way, thank you for taking the time to read a little about this topic.

We arrived in Borneo already anti palm oil. You’ve kind of had to have had your head buried in the sand to have not heard about it somewhere, even as far away as the UK. In Australia there’s such a big anti-palm oil campaign that they’re trying to boycott the use of it in their products.

Our main reason for feeling negatively towards it was that having both visited Peninsula Malaysia before, we’d seen how extensively palm oil is farmed across this beautiful country and have been shocked by the swathes of palm oil trees you see lined up like soldiers for mile after mile after mile as you drive through the countryside. Land that was, and should be, rainforest.

This trip to Malaysia hasn’t done much to reassure us in that department as here we are in a totally different region of Malaysia, and again there are swathes of palm oil trees, again lined up like soldiers, again mile after mile after mile. Indeed Malaysia and Indonesia combined produce more than 80% of the world’s palm oil. (Have a read about our experiences here).

These are a couple of photos we took of some forest in Sarawak, Borneo, that had been felled moments before we got there...so hard to describe the sense of devastation..

After our first week in Sabah, Bro and I made the decision not to by any products containing palm oil. Atmika and Robert had the joy of shopping with us when we trawled the shelves looking for products not made by palm oil before our two-week trip to the jungle. We basically ended up with two packets of digestives and a packet of raisins. My point being, there aren’t many things you can buy that don’t contain palm oil. Our confidence in this decision was reinforced after our two weeks in the rainforest in Sarawak and our traumatic experience seeing the forest cleared in front of our eyes to make way for palm oil.

However, now, the week before we leave Malaysia my mind is far from made up on this matter. As is always the case, of course it is not at all black and white. We’ve just spent 7 weeks in a community that are working together to reforest their local land, and improve the environment in which they live. Many of them also own or farm palm oil. There is in fact a palm oil plantation backing onto the local village. What we’ve got to remember is that farming palm oil has enabled people in this local community to have a steady income, and this in turn has allowed many of them to afford to send their children to school, when previously they would have been unable to. A steady income means improved standard of living and improved quality of life. Who are we, who have access to a steady income, and have an exceptional standard of living, to judge?

In addition to this, much of the land currently used for growing oil palm was previously used for growing other monoculture* crops such as rubber. And in fact, if the land is to be used for monoculture, then oil palm is actually a pretty magnificent crop: It is versatile (it has widespread uses in foods, soap, cosmetics, bread and even pet food), and it is up to 10 times more efficient at producing oil than its competitors, such as rapeseed that we grow in the UK (on that point…we carry out monoculture extensively throughout the UK, the difference being that we chopped down our forests centuries ago…).

That said, allegedly 30% of Borneo’s forest has disappeared over the last four decades as a result of growing palm oil and this is a rate that can’t be sustained. In many cases, palm oil has also been responsible for many cases of land-grabbing, extremely poor working conditions and the large-scale use of chemicals which not only pollute the plantations, but also the surrounding areas, lakes and river systems with interminable negative environmental ramifications.

So here’s the conundrum. We need oil. So what do we do? I’ve come to the conclusion that simply not using products containing palm oil is not the answer. If we are to keep using oil in our products, then palm oil is actually a far more effective crop than alternatives. So I guess what we need to do is to put pressure on the producers of these products to only source palm oil from sustainable palm oil plantations who are only growing on land that has already been used for farming, and have good working conditions and pay for their workers, and importantly NOT buy palm oil from any plantation that has cut down rainforest in order to plant their crops. It is estimated that only a mere 20% of palm oil plantations are actually considered to be ‘Sustainable’ so this needs to be changed. We as consumers and as global citizens, NEED to put pressure on largescale companies to consider their supply chain and ONLY use palm oil providers who grow it sustainably.

So am I going to avoid products with Palm Oil in? No. But I am going to try to change my consumer habits so that I only use companies with a positive commitment to using sustainable palm oil companies who are not responsible for deforestation and who treat their workers fairly and humanely. 

The following are some links where you can find out more-

This site lists large companies in various categories, and ranks them according to their commitment (or lack of) to using sustainable palm oil. Scroll down for an interesting video that illustrates the point nicely http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/articles/your-donut-is-killing-our-forests-here-s-how-to-make-it-stop/

The RSPO (Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil) has been set up to try to address the issue of unsustainable Palm Oil. We heard very mixed reviews about the success or indeed effectiveness of this body, but it’s a start, and their website makes for some interesting reading http://greenpalm.org/about-palm-oil/the-rspo-sustainable-palm-oil

There are various facebook pages dedicated to palm oil issues, for example this one… https://www.facebook.com/palmoilproductsinAustralia?fref=ts -it’s a little Australian-centric in terms of products, but interesting all the same.

Also, if this interests you, please do consider sharing this issue on facebook, discussing this with others, changing your buying habits, and getting involved by signing petitions etc that put pressure on the commercial giants into changing their supply-chain practices, and pushing the industry towards a more sustainable and humane future. Here’s one for starters and it takes 30 seconds to complete (thanks Cheri for sending this my way!). http://action.sumofus.org/a/standard-chartered-palm-oil/?akid=14226.9839487.-P-jdQ&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1 (incidentally Sumofus is a great organisation that is using people power to “stand together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy”). 

Thanks for reading :)

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*monoculture means only one (mono) type of crop is grown. This is also usually associated with a high rate of pesticide and insecticide use to ensure there is nothing threatening or competing with the crop. As you can imagine this has a devastating impact on biodiversity: Habitats that should be home to thousands of plant and animal species instead can only support one main crop and just a handful of species who can survive on it.