On our road to netzero, this month we wanted to reduce our use of palm oil. In this two-part post, we'll have a look at the common products that contain palm oil, how good is CSPO (certified sustainable palm oil) and whether palm oil free can actually end up being a worse outcome for the environment. It's complicated.
The Global Impact of Palm Oil
Palm oil is a tropical crop, with much of the globe's approximate 77 million tonnes of palm oil production occurring across Indonesia and Malaysia, from rainforest regions cleared and felled, with the underlying carbon-absorbing peat disturbed and biodiversity destroyed. Indigenous people's lands and livelihoods impacted. Alongside the displaced orangutans of popular media campaigns, are many other impacted animals including endangered Sumatran tigers, elephants and rhinos. The environment has taken the toll, with the human consequences of global rainforest loss emerging.
Further, during palm oil production a biogas (which is about 65% methane) is released. You will recall from earlier posts that methane has a greenhouse gas potential 25 times more than carbon dioxide. Dire, right?
Let's pause a moment before you go and check the label on your shampoo bottle. Because there are in fact some great qualities about palm oil - if we're trying to answer the question of what is the most sustainable vegetable oil? There are also a great number of palm oil producers (not all, but certainly many and growing, who are carefully capturing the biogas from the by-product of palm oil production and using it to generate electricity for their operations or to export back to the electricity grid.
Next post I will revisit the 'how bad is it?' question and look at RSPO certification (which covers less than 20% of palm oil), but this post let's still focus on identifying it, reducing our use or removing it from our consumption where we can. Global demand for palm oil and vegetable oil continues to escalate so this problem will only get worse without reduction and more sustainable production.
Many of us know palm oil can be found in a range of everyday products. Over two-thirds of palm oil is used in food products like margarine, chocolate, bread and cooking oil. Just under 30% of global palm oil is used in beauty and cleaning products (like soaps and detergents), finally there's about 5% used for biofuels (heating and the like).
Palm oil production has gone crazy in the last few decades - why?
Global palm oil production has increased 700% in the last 30 years, global population increased about 46% over the same 30-year window. So what makes palm oil so popular?
It's a super productive crop. Our World in Data states that it accounts for "36% of the world’s oil, but uses less than 9% of croplands devoted to oil production". You can actually produce a lot more oil from a smaller area compared to other vegetable oil crops making it comparatively cheap.
It's very high in saturated fat. This actually makes it more stable than a lot of other vegetable oils and semi-solid at room temperature with a smooth texture. The upshot being it doesn't go rancid or 'bad' as quickly as some other oils and therefore ends up in a lot of products that need a long shelf life from biscuits to lipsticks. It makes your gravy and spreads smooth, those supermarket cakes fluffy, biscuits deliciously crumbly and much more.
Australia's Heart Foundation recommends we avoid it, similarly, the World Health Organization has said palmitic acid (found in palm oil) contributes to an increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease (source: Choice).
How does Palm oil production contribute to climate change?
Rainforest clearing. Rain forest are one of the largest carbon sinks on the planet. It's not just the flora, but the soil underneath that traps carbon from the atmosphere. The burning of rainforests to clear them for palm oil plantations, destroys trees, upturns the soil (releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide) and adds carbon from the burn off. It's a triple-whammy. Deforestation is said to be the second largest manmade source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, after fossil fuel burning.
Rainforests are also teeming with biodiversity. National Geographic says that "a 10-square-kilometer patch can contain as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies." We know we should protect the millions of species that live only in rainforests to ensure the longevity of their symbiotic relationships between flora and fauna. These relationships help to stabilise the world's climate, as rainforests do the job of capturing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere.
Rainforests recycle huge quantities of water, feeding rivers, lakes and irrigation systems, much more far spread from where they are located. With the growing temperatures rises, many of our rainforests are at risk of drying out, increasing the risk of wildfires and drought.
The unique flora and fauna (some 50% of the world's species) found in rainforests have also been the source of around 25% of medicines for humans.
It's worth calling out here that a lot of more recent expansion of palm oil plantation growth has been on land already previously cleared for logging or other purposes. Does that make it better that it wasn't the original driver for the deforestation? I don't think so. For whatever initial reason land was cleared, rainforest reclamation is a key component for restabilizing climate systems. I think it's a crap argument (hey, the damage was done, man) and a point we will revisit next post.
Waste production. Unfortunately, many of the products that palm oil ends up in are long (or short depending on your snack-atite) shelf-life consumables, made with other processed ingredients, requiring loads of energy, water or chemical processes in their production, and stored in plastic packaging.
Processed biscuits and snack foods are not fantastic for our health, they also encourage our 'lifestyles of convenience' adding unnecessary waste and overproduction, consumption of energy and excessive use of resources compared to alternative wholefood-based snacks.
Commercial beauty products and detergents contribute to wastewater production, adding microplastics or harmful chemicals to our waterways. Many beauty and cleaning products contribute to waste production from packaging and chemical use and disposal.
Impacts to indigenous people. The expansion of palm oil plantations and deforestation in Malaysia and Indonesia has had significant impacts on indigenous communities and rainforest ecosystems.
Indigenous people in these regions often face displacement and conflicts over land rights when their traditional lands are cleared for palm oil plantations. This disrupts their way of life, threatens their cultural heritage, and leads to loss of livelihoods and food sources. The clearing of rainforests and loss of biodiversity can disrupt the ecosystems that indigenous communities rely on for clean water, medicinal plants, and wildlife habitat.
Additionally, the rapid development of palm oil plantations can bring social problems and health issues to indigenous communities. Poverty, inequality, and social conflicts can arise, while migrant workers associated with the plantations may face labor rights abuses and exploitation. Efforts are being made to promote sustainable palm oil practices through certifications like RSPO (next post). However, there is still work to be done to ensure the protection of indigenous rights and rainforest preservation.
Palm Oil and Consumer Products
There have been some great campaigns in the last decade raising awareness of the impact of palm oil production on Orangutan habitats and populations. These campaigns have actually made a really positive with consumer sentiment then driving many companies to go palm oil free, or move towards 'sustainably grown' palm oil.
We'd already made the choice to check and swap one of the key products that I knew contained palm oil - chocolate! - late last year. Since then we've made Darrel Lea our Australian-owned, sustainably sourced cocoa and palm oil free chocolate of choice.
You can find a good source of palm oil free products here and from reading packaging on the labels of products you buy. I'm going to recap the products palm oil is in - then next post we will come back to what it means when that palm pol is RSPO certified (and how much of a difference does it make to these environmental impacts).
Due to its versatility, palm oil can be found in surprising places.
Food and Snacks:
Some of your fave snacks have palm oil including processed snack food like biscuits, crackers, potato chips and ice cream such as -
Arnotts biscuits (including Tim Tams) and Nestle products,
Smith's, The Natural Chip Company, Kettle, Thins potato chips,
Cadbury Dairy Milk, Coles & Woolworths brand chocolate with fillings, Lindor filled chocolates,
Streets ice-creams like Magnums, Paddle Pops, Golden Gaytimes, Cornettos, Lindt some of the nuts, syrups or biscuits in Peter's ice-cream,
Sanitarium peanut butters (why though?)
Just because you think it's healthy or 'good', doesn't mean its palm oil free -
Dairy free products like Sweet William cooking choc chips, Nuttelex spreads
Carman's museli bars - the yogurt or chocolate drizzle bit only, Lowan's museli range, Bellamy's organic baby formula
Then there's personal care and beauty products:
Not in all products but certainly across much of the - Nivea skincare range, Dove soaps and body washes, Pantene hair care products, Rexona deodorants, L'Oréal cosmetics, Glow Lab beauty products, Love Beauty & Planet
Finally, a whole bunch of cleaning products too -
Omo laundry detergent (check individual products)
Palmolive dishwashing liquid (some variations)
Morning Fresh dishwashing liquid (check individual products)
Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, and the presence of palm oil can vary across product lines and formulations. It's essential to read product labels and look for specific mentions of palm oil or its derivatives in the ingredient lists. The thing is palm oil can be disguised in the ingredients in a whole raft of ways as its not required to be listed on the label.
"Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) currently doesn't require companies to specifically label palm oil – it allows it to be hidden behind a generic 'vegetable oil' or 'vegetable fat' label."
This means the following names could also be palm oil -
Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides, Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol
Next post we dive into RSPO certification (what is it, why you really have to look at the level of certification) and then look into whether certification makes palm oil the better choice or just a less worse choice 😉. Meanwhile, aside from chocolate I'm on the hunt for that super list to find hidden sources of palm oil in our house - stay tuned.
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