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CHARITY BLOG
IS YOUR SHOPPING KILLING ORANGUTANS?
Hidden ingredient that’s wiping out forests and endangered species
Palm oil, the secret ingredient in a vast variety of products on our supermarket shelves, and also the cheapest of all vegetable oil, is causing mass deforestation and pushing many species to extinction.
Found in everything from food products to toiletries, palm oil is often a ‘hidden’ ingredient and labeled simply as vegetable oil.
Palm oil is a £5 billion export industry for Indonesia and the world’s most highly consumed oil.
However, palm oil plantations are invariably sited on land that was previous virgin forest and only 3% of the certified as from sustainable sources.
Orangutans are one of the species that have been heavily affected with a 50% decline in recent decades. The Indonesian government acknowledges World Conservation Union (IUCN) figures of approximately 50,000 orangutans deaths due to deforestation.
Unilever, the world’s biggest user of palm oil and founder member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), has distanced itself from two of the Indonesian palm oil producers in past three months casting further doubts on the effectiveness of such ‘groups’ and efforts of developing nations in promoting nature and wildlife over their economies.
Environmental agencies have identified palm oil production as being one of the main reasons in propelling Indonesia to the position of world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter, only behind America and China.
Perhaps, Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is right in putting the responsibility on consumers, “I think it’s really about what consumers can do because the most powerful message that can be sent to companies is from their consumers about what it is they want to buy.”
So next time, you want to bite into a chocolate or think about the smoothest body wash, you might want to ask about its hidden ingredient.
Tip: When a product states ‘vegetable oil’, ask about the exact oil category as the brands using palm oil get away by listing it only as vegetable oil.
by Pallavi Malhotra
