Blog By: Sydney larue
For most people, the morning consists of waking up, brushing your teeth, possibly taking a shower, utilizing some sort of cosmetics or hair care product, getting dressed, and eating breakfast before stepping out the door. By the time you leave your house in the morning, you have probably used palm oil half a dozen times without realizing it.[i] Palm oil – the world’s most popular vegetable oil – is found in more than fifty percent of the products at a grocery store.[ii] From processed foods like bread and margarine to toiletries like toothpaste and shampoo, palm oil is often an ingredient in common household products.[iii] It is the reason frozen French fries become golden brown in the oven, soap become frothy when washing your hands, and laundry detergent gets stains out of clothes.[iv] Palm oil also has no smell or color, which is why it is practically invisible to us.[v] Despite our obliviousness to it, palm oil is everywhere.[vi]
While palm oil is cheap and affordable, it is taking an expensive toll on the environment.[vii] Over the last twenty years, the demand for palm oil has more than tripled, which means the amount of land needed for cultivating oil palm trees has also increased.[viii] Oil palm trees, which produce palm oil, require a tropical environment.[ix] To accommodate for the demand, tropical forests are being cleared to make room for oil palm tree plantations.[x] The resulting deforestation has led to loss of critical habitat for endangered species, increased air pollution from burning the forests, soil erosion, and climate change from greenhouse gases.[xi] While there has been public outcry against the harm the palm oil industry is doing to the environment, a permanent resolution has yet to come into effect.[xii]
One option would be for companies to switch to a different type of vegetable oil, but this would actually be less sustainable than using palm oil.[xiii] Other vegetable oils, like rapeseed, soybean, and sunflower, require significantly more land for cultivation than palm oil.[xiv] Even though oil palm tree plantations take up seven percent of the world’s suitable cultivation land, they produce over forty percent of the world’s vegetable oil.[xv] Rapeseed oil would require five times as much land to produce the same amount of oil while soybean oil would require eight times as much land.[xvi] Therefore, palm oil already is the most cost-effective and land-effective vegetable oil option, so there must be a different solution for counteracting the environmental harm of the palm oil industry.[xvii]
Another solution would be for consumers to demand sustainably grown palm oil. If the bulk of palm oil produced is used in consumer products, then there is potential for consumers themselves to be the driving force behind change in the palm oil industry.[xviii] Recently, some companies have begun using only sustainably grown palm oil, which is palm oil that can be traced to a certified sustainable supply base, in their products. [xix] Unfortunately, certified sustainable palm oil accounts for only twenty percent of the world’s palm oil.[xx] Recently, however, consumer demands for sustainably produced palm oil have found some success. In 2022, Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumers of palm oil, announced their plan to shift to only deforestation-free sources of palm oil.[xxi] Under Unilever’s initiative, it will only purchase palm oil from suppliers that (1) protect natural ecosystems from deforestation and conversion, (2) respect and promote human rights, (3) are transparent and traceable, and (4) are a source of good for nature and people.[xxii] Therefore, demanding that more companies consume palm oil sustainably could be an effective way to prevent the palm oil industry from wreaking anymore havoc on the environment.[xxiii]
A third option would be to pass legislation regulating products that contain palm oil. Currently, palm oil is not required to be clearly disclosed on ingredients lists.[xxiv] Nonetheless, palm oil is often present in products, but listed under another name.[xxv] Requiring companies to clearly disclose when palm oil is present in a product, and whether it is sustainably grown, would allow for more transparency in marketing and grant consumers the power to choose how much palm oil they consume and whether it is sustainable or not.[xxvi]
In 2021, the End Palm Oil Deforestation Act was introduced into the House of Representatives.[xxvii] If this Act were passed, it would establish standards for a sustainable palm oil certification, which would require that certified sustainable palm oil be cultivated with practices that prevent deforestation and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.[xxviii] The Act would also require that any product available for sale to consumers disclose whether palm oil is present in the product, which would encourage companies to aspire to a sustainable certification standard to include in their marketing[xxix] Therefore, a combination of legislation and consumer demand for sustainable products has the strongest potential to prevent further environmental degradation by the palm oil industry. Giving consumers the power to choose their level of palm oil consumption and allowing them to demand better practices would force companies to acquire their palm oil more sustainably, which would lead to overall more sustainable practices in the palm oil industry.[xxx]
[i] Hillary Rosner, Palm oil is destroying rainforests. But try going a day without it., Nat’l Geographic (Dec. 13, 2018), https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/palm-oil-destroying-rainforests-household-items [https://perma.cc/V64M-G7XT].
[ii] Palm oil – deforestation for everyday products., Rainforest Rescue, https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/topics/palm-oil (last visited Feb. 10, 2023) [https://perma.cc/S5AH-ZVSW].
[iii] Pablo Robles, Anuradha Raghu, Adam Majendie, & Jin Wu, The World’s Addiction to Palm Oil is Only Getting Worse, Bloomberg (Nov. 5, 2021), https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-palm-oil-deforestation-climate-change/ [https://perma.cc/AKZ2-9UEM].
[iv] Id.
[v] Id.
[vi] Rosner, supra note i.
[vii] Robles, supra note iii.
[viii] Id.
[ix] What is Palm Oil? Facts About the Palm Oil Industry, World Wildlife Fund, https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/palm-oil (last visited Feb. 10, 2023) [https://perma.cc/2NM8-W2P4].
[x] Id.
[xi] Id.
[xii] Rosner, supra note i.
[xiii] Robles, supra note iii.
[xiv] Id.
[xv] Id.
[xvi] Id.
[xvii] Id.
[xviii] Rosner, supra note iii.
[xix] Robles, supra note iii.
[xx] Endangered species threatened by unsustainable palm oil production, World Wildlife Fund, https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/endangered-species-threatened-by-unsustainable-palm-oil-production (last visited Mar. 3, 2023) [https://perma.cc/8WNG-QC27].
[xxi] Sustainable and deforestation-free palm oil, Unilever, https://www.unilever.com/planet-and-society/protect-and-regenerate-nature/sustainable-palm-oil/ (last visited Feb. 10, 2023) [https://perma.cc/WNG5-NDJ5].
[xxii] Id.
[xxiii] Rosner, supra note i.
[xxiv] Id.
[xxv] Id.
[xxvi] Robles, supra note iii.
[xxvii] H.R. 5863, 117th Cong., 1st Sess. (2021).
[xxviii] Id. at §3(b).
[xxix] Id. at §4(b)(2); Robles, supra note iii; Rosner, supra note i.
[xxx] Id.