Poisonous Palm

The dirty secrets of palm oil ...

"It's just a glass of Nutella it will cause no harm," they said...

"It cannot harm the environment," they said...

"It's just a small packet of Oreos," they said...

Palm oil mostly comes from Indonesia and Malaysia which together make up 85% of the world palm oil production. The first palm oil tree was originally brought to South-East-Asia in the mid 19th century for decorative purposes. According to the World Wildlife Fund there are 42 countries currently producing palm oil.

So what is palm oil?

Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees.

There are two types:

• Crude palm oil that comes from squashing the fruit

• Palm Kernel oil that comes from crushing the kernel (seeds found in the fruit)

What is the problem with palm oil?

Palm oil trees take around 4 years to grow before producing their first fruit and they will continue producing fruit for another 30 years before becoming useless and being burnt to the ground to make space for new trees. Every oil palm tree requires approximately 3m diameter clearing which causes mass deforestation of already growing trees (non palm oil trees). Palm kernel cake, which is a by-product of palm kernel oil, is used to fatten livestock.  

Palm oil bio fuel

Palm oil is also used to manufacture bio fuel and has become what is called the green fuel option for vehicles, ships and aircraft fuel.

How sustainable or green is palm oil?

The drainage of carbon-rich organic soils for plantations releases massive greenhouse gas emissions. Fires in Indonesia produce some of the world’s worst pollution, sending suffocating smog to cities hundreds of miles away in Malaysia and Singapore because of the slash and burn technique used to clear large areas of forest (cheaply) for palm oil

production. According to World Wildlife Fund there are approximately 20 million hectares of abandoned land in Indonesia that could be used for palm oil plantations, however, many palm oil companies are tied in with logging firms so they make twice the money by cutting down the rainforests too. It is estimated that over 50 orangutans are killed every week due to deforestation because palm oil producers hire locals to kill any animal that proves a threat the palm oil plantations. If they find a mother and baby orangutan they kill the mother and put the the baby up for sale in illegal pet trades.

Around 66 million tonnes of palm oil is annually produced making it the most common vegetable oil. Each tree can produce 10 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches per hectare. On average 3.9 tonnes of crude palm oil and 0.5 tonnes of palm kernel oil can be extracted per hectare.

Calculation:

66 million tons ÷ 4.4 tons = 15 million hectares

(This means that around 7 billion trees were burnt or cut down to supply us with one years worth of palm oil)

The average tree consumes 48 pounds (21.78 Kg) of carbon dioxide a year

21.78 kg x 7 billion trees = 152460000000 Kg of carbon added to the atmosphere (And more because even

though palm oil trees act as carbon sinks as well the production of palm oil makes way more CO2 then the trees could possibly offset) (Not including the large amount of carbon dioxide that burning the trees makes)

In conclusion

Even though some sources of palm oil are said to be sustainable the chances are they did not take into account the trees they cut down, the amount of water the palm oil tree used, the amount of energy it takes to gain the palm oil from the fruit or kernel and the shipping of the palm oil to the factory producing the product.

Sustainable palm oil meaning:
Plantations certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) can't clear “primary forests or areas which contain significant concentrations of biodiversity (e.g. endangered species) or fragile ecosystems.” They must minimize erosion and protect water sources.

However businesses tend to avoid sustainable palm oil as it comes with higher prices and either makes the profit margins smaller or it increases the cost of the end product that lands on supermarket shelves.

The boycott of Nutella

(!This is not to discourage people from eating Nutella it is just some facts!)

Ferrero USA (company that owns and produces Nutella) noted that its palm oil use represents a “mere 0.3% of the worldwide palm oil production”.

As a result many people are beginning to boycott Nutella because it is 32% fat most of which is palm oil as well as the large amount of fat being really unhealthy. Many brands are making similar palm oil free versions to make money from the Nutella scare that happened back in 2017.

Another reason for boycotts was the Nutella scare where the fears were that palm oil causes cancer due to compounds called glycidyl fatty acide esters (GE), that are produced when palm oil is heated above 200 degrees celsius. However according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), palm oil generates more of a contaminant that potentially has a higher chance of causing cancer than other oils when reaching this temperature. Nutella has now said they have changed the way they make Nutella so that it's temperature during production doesn't go above 200 degrees celsius.

Common things in your household that containing palm oil:

- Lipstick

- Pizza dough (shop brought)

- Instant noodles

- Shampoo

- Ice cream

- Detergent

- Margarine

- Chocolate cookies

- Soap

- Prepackaged bread

21% of the worlds palm oil is sustainable - when you go to the shop try to buy a version of everything that is 100% palm oil free (believe me it is almost impossible)

⚠ Warning this post contained palm oil! ⚠

Thank you for reading this post and stay safe

The Eco Sisters xxx