Palm Oil

[katynewbie]

Next year I am going on holiday to Borneo. Primary reason is to see Orang Utans. This got me thinking about the number of baby Orangs who are orphaned due to the palm oil trade. Does anyone know of a list of products which contain it? Is anyone involved in any anti-palm oil campaigns?

[katynewbie]

[Lishka]

Hello matey! Sorry, don't 'do' links but I've put "products containing palm oil" just now into ogogel and there are some interesting sites there. Hope this helps.

Ans. to second part = no :-\

Lish

[Sparkly]

Some of our kids at college have been doing a project on this as part of a sustainability qualification.

This is an interesting read!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8517000/8517093.stm

[Melbourne12]

Since the rather emotive Panorama programme was broadcast, this rather excellent report has been commissioned by DEFRA http://www.plant-talk.org/documents/UKpalmoil.pdf

It's worth a read in spite of its length (and in spite of its appalling spelling and frequent typos).  It seems to me to be extremely fair, pointing out where improvements can be made, but acknowledging efforts already made and initiatives already under way.

As for campaigning, you'll make not a ha'porth of difference by boycotting custard creams or sherbert lemons.  The UK consumption of palm oil is utterly dwarfed by the big consumers, led by China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan.  And I rather fear that the survival of the orang-utan isn't high on the agendas of those countries' governments.

[artichoke]

I went on a bus through Malaysia for several hours and was very struck by the monotony of mile after mile of palm trees.

It was only when I got back to UK that I realised that the plantations are there for palm oil.

If ever there was a destructive mono-culture, it is there.

Even if any campaign is "utterly dwarfed by the big consumers, led by China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Pakistan" I think we have to try it.

"Which" tells us which products to boycott, and I will try to do it.

[katynewbie]

Thanks for the info arti, if we all had the same attitude to everything nothing would change, would it? Would you be able to post a link to the Which stuff? I would like to do my bit, but it's hard to find solid information.

Thanks K x

[Melbourne12]

You'll find all the solid information that exists about the UK usage of palm in the DEFRA report, including names of all the companies that use palm oil, palm kernel oil, and palm meal, and showing the amounts that they use, and the percentage inclusion in typical products.

The USDA publishes world production and consumption figures, by country.

The UK was only ever a traditional user of palm oil in soap products.  We had no tradition of using it in baking fats, nor in frying.  It may be worth remembering that it was the unintended consequences of campaigning and lobbying that created UK demand for palm.

First we worried about the health effects of consuming animal fats.  Chips were traditionally fried in dripping, and baking fats were either dairy or based on lard or fish oils.  Within a few years the demand for vegetable alternatives saw dripping, lard, and pilchard vanish from the formulations.

And so we were happy for a while, until the health lobby began to panic about hydrogenated oils.  So cheap soya and cottonseed oils began to be dropped in favour of oils that didn't need to be hydrogenated.  And practically, that means palm and coconut.  Both are horribly unhealthy, but the campaigners didn't care.  Trans fats were the villains now, and we'd forgotten about saturated fats.

You can deodorise and de-colour palm very successfully, albeit at a cost, whereas coconut always seems to retain an element of coconuttiness.  So palm it was.

Even if you were to succeed in making palm oil unacceptable worldwide, all that would happen would be that some other wretched creature's habitat would be destroyed by coconut plantations in yet another unintended consequence in the chain of events.

If you want my advice you'll switch to all-butter formulations for your bikkies and pastries.  At least there's a fighting chance of supporting the British dairy industry that way.

ETA: Oh, and in all the above, I'd not mentioned conversion of vegetable oils into biofuels and the burning of meal for power generation.  Another campaign, this time by green lobbyists for "renewable energy", that had unforeseen consequences.

The USA used to use hardly any palm - in spite of its much bigger population, they only imported about a third of the amount that the UK did.  Now they use somewhat more than us, though not by much.  Why?  Biofuels.  Personally I think it's temporary, and domestic production of soya will rise to meet demand.  But worldwide, biofuel production is now a big factor.

Edit: Oops, sorry, cross posted the edit with Pumpkinlover below.

[GrannieAnnie]

Four years ago two young Michigan girl scouts began a boycott of the sale of girl scout cookies due to the usage of palm oil.
they've made some progress as told in this article, but the organization still sells cookies made from palm for some reason. I should think it would be easy enough to delete the offending cookie from their list.

http://www.care2.com/causes/girl-scouts-boycott-girl-scout-cookies-to-save-orangutans.html

[pumkinlover]

Isn't one of the uses of palm oil for biofuel? http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/palm-oil
Good on the kids for making this stand- but reducing demand for fuel isn't as easy as changing which biscuits you buy - but could have an impact......

[ruthydoodle]

Hi,
I'm running a channel 4 Battlefront campaign all about this. Clearance of rain forest in Borneo and Sumatra to make way for palm oil plantations is destroying the habitats of many endangered species including orangutans who could become extinct within the next 15-20 years. The aim of my campaign is to raise awareness of the issues surrounding unsustainable palm oil as many people just don't realise the links between palm oil, deforestation and the effects it has on critically endangered species and indigenous people in the areas. Hopefully if there is enough pressure on producers and companies that use palm oil we can change things to stop this cruel destruction and to save beautiful species like the orangutan from going extinct. My campaign page contains a petition and news about the things I am doing within my campaign: http://www.battlefront.co.uk/orangutans

Additionally like my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/OrangutanAlert?ref=ts and follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/orangutanalert
to find out more information and to follow the campaign. Please support the campaign as together we can raise awareness of this important issue and change things for the better :)

And yes palm oil is used in Biofuels, even though this type of agriculture releases CO2 and methane which contribute to climate change. Additionally the importation of palm oil  releases emissions and the destruction of rain forests reduces the carbon sink offsetting more carbon than is saved.