Using an orangutan to take on an industry
Palm oil producers call cartoon unfair
An industry group that oversees the sustainability of palm oil has hit back at U.K. supermarket chain Iceland Foods Ltd. for its viral commercial attacking the tropical oil.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which includes producers and buyers, said boycotting palm oil doesn’t stop the destruction of rainforests, and Iceland should instead work with the industry to ensure there are sustainable standards for any of the oils and fats it consumes.
Retailers should not simplify the issue of deforestation to use it as a marketing gimmick, RSPO chief executive officer Darrel Webber said in an interview from Borneo.
Iceland’s video, which shows a cartoon orangutan explaining to a girl that its home in the rainforest has been destroyed, has been watched more than four million times on YouTube and has 15 million views on Facebook.
The supermarket chain says it’s removing palm oil from its own-label products, which include things like pizza, potato chips and mince pies. There’s been a public outcry after the Christmas ad, which was made by Greenpeace, was blocked from airing on U.K. television, with a petition calling for its repeal garnering almost a million signatures. “We have not removed palm oil from our own label food as ‘a marketing gimmick,’ but to raise public awareness of the continuing destruction of the rainforest,” Richard Walker, Iceland’s managing director, said in an email. “By doing so we hope to apply pressure to the palm oil industry to deliver the genuinely sustainable product that it has long been promising.”
Palm oil, used in everything from cooking oil to chocolate, lipstick and shampoo, is no stranger to controversy. Farmers have been accused of illegally using slash-and-burn methods to clear land for plantations, destroying rainforests and animal habitats as well as compounding water and air pollution. That’s resulted in governments and producers struggling to improve the perception and marketability of the oil, and led to the creation of the RSPO in 2004 to monitor the industry and set standards for sustainable production.
Around 19 per cent of the world’s palm oil is certified sustainable by the RSPO, and this may see a “significant” increase next year as more growers in Malaysia’s Sabah, Latin America and Africa show interest, according to Webber. About 85 per cent of palm oil is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia.
The ad has drawn ire from the Malaysian government, which called it unfair and misleading.