Keep Palm Oil out of your Palm

The Palm Oil Industry is destroying our environment and earth, yet many people don't know half enough about Palm Oil. Why?

There is a worrying lack of education around palm oil and its affects on the environment, as well as what it is and where it comes from. This lack of education limits people from taking control of their culinary life and making sustainable decisions when putting food on the table.

Here are ten facts about Palm Oil to get educated!:

1. Palm oil itself doesn’t negatively impact the environment, it is the production and exploitation of it by people that cause the problems.

2. Palm Oil is used in a greater variety and amount than other vegetable oils because it offers a great yield to farmers at a very low cost. It is also easy to spread over foods, it stores for a long time, and it can be cooked at high temperatures and is the cheapest.

3. The negative impacts of the Palm Oil industry are that it steals homes from animals, releases major amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere adding to the causes of climate change, causes soil erosion, damages biodiversity and causes large levels of waste and much more.

4. 27 million hectares of the Earth’s surface is covered in palm oil plantations – this area had to be cleared of forests, animals and habitats to make space for the palm oil plantations.

5. Sumatran Rhinos, Pygmy Elephants, Sun Bears, Proboscis Monkeys, Sumatran Tigers, Clouded Leopards and many more animal species are all in danger due to the palm oil industry.

6. It is estimated that over 50 orangutans are murdered weekly due to palm oil exploitation.

7. Palm Oil is used in beauty products, in cosmetics, in food manufacturing, as a biofuel etc.

8. Nearly 50% of all packaged products in supermarkets contain palm oil according to the World Wildlife Fund.

9. The most popular palm oil tree is Elaeis guineensis.

10. Palm Oil comes from a red, orange fruit that grows on palm trees.

Here is an incredible video by green peace about an orangutan and its experience with the palm oil industry. "Rang-tan the story of dirty palm oil"

How To Avoid Using Palm Oil:

If you want to avoid palm oil due to it being unsustainable and having a negative impact on the environment here are some ways to do so.

1. Firstly you need to know how to identify palm oil on an ingredient's label. Palm Oil can be disguised under many different names on a label. This makes it harder to be able to avoid palm oil in products. Here are some of the most common names used:

Palm Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmitoleic Acid, Palm Kernel Acid, Palm Kernel Cake, Palmate, Glyceryl Stearate.

2. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary boycotting is the action "to refuse to buy, use, or participate in (something) as a way of protesting." If enough people stopped supporting palm oil products it would lead to the business needing to use a substitute and stop the use of palm oil, leading to the Palm Oil industry becoming smaller and becoming less of a threat to our environment.

To boycott palm oil products you could support substitute products instead, like the Vego company who create palm oil free chocolate and chocolate spread as well as the meridian palm oil free almond butter. The Iceland Shop also has all palm oil free products in its shops.

Here are some online stores that sell palm free products:

- https://www.ecostore.ie/

- https://reuzi.ie/

- https://littlegreenshop.ie/

- https://www.earthmother.ie/

- https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/palm-oil/palm-oil-free-list

3. Educate yourself. To avoid using palm oil you could use education as your top tool to do this, educating yourself on palm oil and how to avoid it as well as substitute products. Here are many helpful websites and resources:

Instagram:

@lets_talk_about_palm_oil

@orangutanalliance

@say_no_to_palmoil_

Websites:

- https://www.checinternational.org/palm-oil-impact-environment/

- https://www.palmoilinvestigations.org/names-for-palm-oil.html

- https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil

- https://ethicalunicorn.com/2018/11/20/everything-you-need-to-know-about-palm-oil-what-it-is-why-its-unsustainable-should-you-boycott/

- https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil

- https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/palm-oil

- https://ypte.org.uk/factsheets/palm-oil/where-does-palm-oil-come-from