THE PERILS OF PALM OIL
It turns out that what’s good for Western diets is bad for Indonesia’s rainforests,
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a ban on trans fat in June, it was hailed as a major public health victory. Trans fat, after all, has been linked to heart disease and stroke, the two top causes of death in the United States.
For environmental activists, this ban is a source of deep anxiety. They are afraid of the unintended but huge consequences on climate change.
At stake are Asian rainforests, landscapes dotted with meadows and heathlands, freshwater lakes and rivers, as well as rhinos, elephants, orangutans and tigers: species threatened with extinction.
The dots connect this way: the trans fat ban, experts believe, will lead to an increase in demand for palm oil, its leading — and healthier — replacement. More tropical rainforests and peatlands in Southeast Asia are likely to be cleared for palm oil plantations, causing rhinos and the other animals lose their habitats. Additionally, these forests and peatlands are the largest carbon sinks in the world and when they are destroyed, they release massive amounts of carbon dioxide.
Deforestation is already the secondlargest man-made source of carbon dioxide, after fossil fuel burning.
Palm’s perfect profile
Palm oil, an edible vegetable oil derived from the fruit of the West African oil palm tree, grows in tropical regions worldwide. It is cheap, has a long shelf life and is stable even at high heats. Once it is refined and bleached, it has a neutral taste.
Consequently, it is everywhere: in cosmetics, snacks, chocolates, lotions, soap, even biodiesel. It is present in an estimated half of grocery store products in the United States, Canada, Australia and England.
More than 85 per cent of the world’s palm oil — about 50 million tonnes annually — comes from the tropical rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. The demand has skyrocketed over the past decade, especially since 2006 when the FDA told manufacturers to label trans fat — made when liquid vegetable oil is changed into a solid fat — on food products. American palm oil imports almost immediately jumped 60 per cent.
That is a good thing: palm oil is healthier.
Since1990, almost nine million hectares of Indonesia’s rainforests — an area more than 10 times the size of Algonquin Park — have been razed to make way for palm oil plantations. In Malaysia, more than five million hectares of forest land is being used to cultivate this crop.
Indonesia is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, with 85 per cent of its emissions the result of deforestation and peatland burning.
Expansion of palm oil plantations is “a huge climate change issue,” says Gemma Tillack of Rainforest Action Network, an environmental organization based in San Francisco.
It is also one of the least known, she adds.
“It’s been easy for the media and for activists to tell the story of palm oil with deforestation and extinction of species and brutal working conditions for people,” says Tillack. “Those three are visible impacts ... forests being cleared, homes being bulldozed. There have even been deaths.”
The tougher story to get across has been the link between palm oil and greenhouse gas emissions.
Forests in peril
One of the quickest and cheapest ways to combat climate change would be to stop deforestation.
Richard Brooks, forest campaign co-ordinator with Greenpeace Canada, says increasing demand for palm oil doesn’t have to result in clearing more tropical rainforests. Only land that has already been cleared and cannot be restored should be used for palm oil production, he says.
Would that be enough to meet the new, expected demand? It isn’t clear.
“There is sufficient land for palm oil cultivation,” argues Brooks. “We can’t afford to clear more forests for palm oil. Marginal lands (that have no other use) can be used for palm oil.”
Brooks sees the ban as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of sustainable palm oil.
As it stands, many manufacturers already prohibit suppliers from cutting down rainforests and ask that they rely on land that has already been cleared. The problem is that the supply chain for palm oil is complex and lacks transparency: supplies can be from different sources at multiple stages in the chain and it often becomes tough to trace it back to a single source.
Like Brooks, Scott Poynton of The Forest Trust, a charity that helps companies have responsible supply chains, says he isn’t against palm oil and isn’t calling for its boycott.
“All we are saying is verifying that it is sustainable; . . . it cannot be at expense of our forests.”