Think twice before using palm oil

by Stefani Pollack, Posted May 26th 2008 @ 4:00PM

There are so many things to consider when deciding what food products to purchase that it sometimes overwhelms me. However, some decisions are just too important to ignore - whether or not to use palm oil products is one of them.

According to Wikipedia, palm oil has surpassed soybean oil to become the most widely used vegetable oil in the world. Palm oil is used as a cooking oil, it is found in many processed foods, and it is used in cleaning products, makeup, and even as feedstock for biofuel. The American Palm Oil Council tells us that palm oil is "packed with nutrients that contribute to your daily energy needs. Palm oil provides a valuable source of beta carotene and vitamin E."

On a recent NPR segment of Make Me Care, Rolf Skar, a senior forest campaigner with Greenpeace, reminds us that despite any potential benefits of palm oil, we should think twice before making it our oil of choice. Why?

According to Skar, clearing out the tropical forests of Indonesia to make palm oil is fueling "the fastest and the worst deforestation rate in the history of humankind."
The clearing and burning of forests for more and more palm oil facilities releases massive amounts of greenhouse gases. This has helped push Indonesia to become the world's number three emitter of greenhouse gases (the US and China are number one and two).
Skar also says that as much as 80 percent of the land-clearing in Indonesia is illegal. He states that this leads to shady production facilities and human rights abuses.
Orangutans and Sumatran white tigers are facing extinction due in part to palm oil production.

No one can make someone else care about something, but Skar sure did a good job convincing me.

Filed Under: Food News
Tags: featured, npr, palm oil, palm oil plantations, PalmOil, PalmOilPlantations

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-26-2008 @4:22PM Julie said... I had never used palm oil before but hearing its nutritional value may have swayed me to try it. Hearing about the distruction of the rainforests in order to produce it guarantees that I will NEVER try it!
http://www.noshtalgia.blogspot.com/
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5-26-2008 @8:31PM Marumm said... Add another bullet point to that list:

That stuff tastes nasty. I tried making popcorn with it once and it made it taste like it had been sitting in a Walmart cafeteria for two days.
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5-26-2008 @9:59PM verdegrrl said... Greenpeace exists to employ itself, as evidenced by targeting Apple when Apple's products are no more wasteful than any other brand. They admit targeted Apple because Apple's demographic is wealthier than other PC brands, and thus easier to shake down for donations.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/ABC6DFDA-9DE9-4EA8-A269-65EAAB628676.html

So this makes me question what is the angle Greenpeace is looking to exploit in the palm oil segment? I'm not saying palm oil is the greenest or ideal choice, but Greenpeace doesn't have that much credibility with me.
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5-26-2008 @10:20PM STH said... Well, there are excellent health-related reasons to avoid palm oil, whatever the merit of the environmental reasons. It's usually found in packaged cookies, crackers, etc., and is chock-full of heart-killing trans fat.
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5-26-2008 @11:30PM redapes said... The palm oil industry is directly responsible for the genocide of orangutans. These innocent, peaceful creatures are being slaughtered as virgin rainforest is burned down and replaced by palm oil plantations. Adults are immediately killed while babies are taken to be sold in the illegal pet trade. A few of the lucky ones are confiscated and brought to centers such as Nyaru Menteng, which is operated by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. The center is home to nearly 700 orangutans-- most of them under 5 years old. They need your help! To learn more about how you can protect orangutans, please visit the Orangutan Outreach website at redapes.org.

Thank you,

Richard Zimmerman
Director, Orangutan Outreach
http://redapes.org
Reach out and save the orangutans!
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5-27-2008 @5:22PM Bernie B said... I first found out about this from an article about two Girl Scouts working on one of their scouting awards started doing research on endangered Orangutans in Indonesia and discovered that the habitat of orangutans is being threatened by conversion of the land to the production of palm oil, an ingredient in Girl Scout Cookies.

The girls have boycotted the selling of Thin Mints and are now selling Magazines instead. Read the article here;

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004351728_cookies16.html

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5-27-2008 @10:11PM marvelite2000 said... And while we are at it, lets boycot corn and soybean for causing the destruction of the Amazon.
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1213-amazon_corn_sub.html
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5-27-2008 @10:19PM Kamar Zaman said... And while we are at it, lets boycot corn and soybean for causing the destruction of the Amazon.
http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1213-amazon_corn_sub.html
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5-29-2008 @10:47PM . said... I READ SOMEWHERE.. I THINK ON SOME VEGAN OR RAW FOOD DIET WEBSITE... THAT RED PALM OIL FROM AFRICA HELPS TO PROTECT THE NERVOUS SYSTEM AND SPINAL CORD.
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