How to help save his home... by changing what you buy for yours
After Iceland’s banned orangutan ad becomes a hit...
THE story of Rang-tan, the baby orangutan who has taken up residence in a girl’s bedroom, is already this year’s most talkedabout Christmas advert.
And that’s despite the fact that you can only watch the supermarket chain Iceland’s carton online.
In the UK, advertising regulatory body Clearcast banned the advert, narrated by Dame Emma Thompson and originally put together by Greenpeace, for being too political.
But the issue it highlights is one a mounting body of evidence shows needs to be addressed: the production of palm oil.
As those who have seen the cute but hardhitting production (it’s all over the internet) will know, the cartoon’s orange-haired star has had to move out of her rainforest home because of the destruction wrought by the production of palm oil.
Here we talk you through this controversial issue, and highlight the palm oil-free alternatives that can help you save Rangtan and her friends . . .
WHAT IS PALM OIL?
PALM oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. The trees are native to West Africa, where it has long been an agricultural crop, but it ended up in Southeast Asia more than 100 years ago as an ornamental crop.
It’s the world’s most widely-used vegetable oil — 66 million tons is produced every year — and consumption is on the rise, with the oil appearing in all manner of products.
It was first planted commercially in Malaysia in 1917, and Indonesia and Malaysia now account for 85% of the global supply. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), 42 other countries also produce it.
Incredibly efficient, the plant produces more oil per land area than any equivalent vegetable oil crop, hence its rapid rise. Palm oil supplies 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demands on just under 10% of the land allocated to oil crops. It’s versatile, odourless and colourless, and has a high melting point so it is semi-solid at room temperature, keeping spreads spreadable. The WWF says it’s also resistant to oxidation (giving products a longer shelf-life) and stable at high temperatures (giving fried products a crispy texture).
This explains why it is estimated to feature in about half of all supermarket products.
SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
PRODUCTION has expanded at a frightening rate. Oil palm plantations are already said to cover more than 27 million hectares of the Earth’s surface — an area the size of New Zealand — and production is expected to triple by 2050.
The spread of palm oil has been blamed for major deforestation in some of the most diverse habitats. Given that this is largely unfolding in Indonesia and Malaysia, that’s where Rang-tan comes in.
Vast areas of rainforest — once home not just to orang-utans, but also to tigers, elephants and rhinos — have been cleared to make way for oil palms. Already endangered animals such as the Borneo pygmy elephant, Sumatran rhino and orangutans have been put at risk. An estimated 25 orangutans are killed every day, and Iceland’s advert is dedicated to them.
People are losing their homes, too. And that’s not to mention the question marks surrounding working conditions, and any impact of forest loss on climate change.
HOW ABOUT SUSTAINABLE OIL?
IN RECENT years there has been a drive towards more sustainable sourcing and production of palm oil. But campaign groups’ views on how realistic this is differ.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was formed in 2004 due to concerns about the impact of mass production. It is intended to set a global standard for palm oil production, with ‘stringent’ criteria for producers, and a certification process to signal to buyers that the products they buy contain palm oil from a sustainable source.
In 2010, many of our most popular brands pledged that by 2020 they would no longer buy palm oil from any supplier involved in the destruction of forests.
But Greenpeace says that while responsible production is possible and does happen, questions remain over how reliable the system is. It says its research shows a string of leading brands are still sourcing from suppliers involved in clearing the rainforests.
As for switching to a different oil? The WWF says that to get the same amount of alternative oils, such as soybean or coconut oil, you would need between four and ten times more land. This would shift the problem to other parts of the world and further threaten habitats.
WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK FOR?
PALM oil has many different guises. Here are some of the ingredient names the WWF says to look out for: Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearin, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hydrogenated Palm Glycerides, Ethyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol.