You may have heard allot of buzz around Palm Oil in the last few weeks. Greenpeace has had over half a million you tube views of its Nestle Killer video and generated over 85k unique emails to Nestle asking for action. So what is this Palm Oil and why is it such a big problem?
Palm Oil is currently the cheapest vegetable oil on the international market making the demand for it near insatiable. You will be surprised at the huge array of products that Palm Oil is used in for its flavor, texture and shorting quality. Being so diverse in its quality’s it is used in many of food products that we consume every day. Kit Kats, LCMs, TimTams, Maggi noodles, Pringles, Ritz, Shapes are all known to have Palm Oil or a derivative in them. As well as this it is used for Bio Oils, Cosmetics and other consumer products.
The environmental damage that Palm Oil’s whirlwind production has caused, particularly in the Indonesian rainforest, where it appears the enforcing of environmental protection laws is difficult challenge. Being one of the key ‘carbon sinks’ of the world the rapid conversion of rainforest to palm production presents a great risk in global warming, not to mention the risk to the already greatly endangered orang-utan population.
All this adds up to the need for company’s like Nestle to be more ethical in the way they source their ingredients. Sustainable Palm Oil, Fair Trade products and more disclosure of the ingredients are all being demanded by contentious consumers so how long will it take the mega corporations like Nestle to react?
Check out some of the pages and videos below to get involved!