St Mary's Weekly Eco Tip: Choose Sustainable Palm Oil
Palm oil is cheap to cultivate, which is why it’s used in so many of the products we buy. When David Attenborough recently returned to Indonesia he was shocked at how much forest had been replaced by oil-palm plantations. 12.5% of Southeast Asian forest has been destroyed to make way for palm oil and other commodities. The iconic orangutan lives in these forests: as its habitat disappears, so too does its chance of survival, along with that of many other species.
Palm oil is everywhere. A study of several thousand products available in a supermarket found that nearly half contained palm oil – not only a wide variety of processed food, but also many cleaning products and personal care materials.
The best thing we can do is support sustainable palm oil and avoid boycotts, since we know substitutions with other vegetable oils can lead to even further environmental and social harm.