Environment, Food

Palm Oil

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Do you know if you are buying or consuming a product that contains Palm Oil? Do you know if your favourite snack is made with sustainable Palm Oil? The demand for Palm Oil has skyrocketed and is threatening the lives of animals & people.

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What is Palm Oil?

Palm oil is a vegetable oil, high in saturated fat, which comes from the fruit of the oil palm tree. It is the most widely produced edible oil in the world and oil palms produce more vegetable oil per hectare of land than other crops. Because it has such a high yield it is potentially good for the environment due to needing less resources than other oils.

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What is it found in?

Palm oil is found in around 50 per cent of products on Australian supermarket shelves in foods, cosmetics & toiletries and it is also a bio fuel.

To see The Checkouts segment on Palm Oil click here. Video Description: ‘The Checkout- Palm Oil: Ben Jenkins on the use of palm oil in so many of our favourite products, and the threat it poses to making “apesploitation” films like Clint Eastwood’s Every Which Way But Loose in the future.’

It is not mandatory to label palm oil in Australia and Palm Oil has over 170 other names such as: Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides,
Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate and Palmityl Alcohol.

Palm oil is found in a wide range of products because it is extremely versatile and cheap to grow.

To find out more about the products that contain palm oil & alternate names see:

How is it produced?

To harvest the fruit from Oil Palms workers chop off some of the branches to dislodge a bundle of fruit and then the bundles are collected and loaded into a truck which takes them to a processing plant.
The truck tips a load into a hopper that takes the fruit to the steam chamber where they are ‘cooked’ for an hour with high pressure & high steam.
The softened palm fruit is then ready for pressing – palm fruit holds oil in miniature capsules and after being steamed the capsules break open making the fruit bendable & oily and seperates the kernel nut from the shell which is used to make palm kernel oil which is used in ice cream, chocolate, soap & cosmetics.

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For more information & pictures click here.

What are the impacts?

Palm oil plantations are largely found in Malaysia & Indonesia. These countries are being greatly affected by extreme deforestation by companies making way for the palm oil plantations.

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Instead of removing the trees in the forest and using the wood for something useful, they set fire to the trees without considering the animals & people who live there. The fires produce a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions and the trees are left smoldering where they fall. The Palm trees are planted in place of the original forest.

Clearing rain forests is the endangering lives of Orangutans and destroys their habitat. See more information further down the post under Zoos Victoria.

Take Part

What can You do?

  • Green Palm - Supporting Sustainable Palm OilBe aware of what products contain palm oil
  • Buy products that have sustainable palm oil – look for the CSPO label or Green Palm label
  • Email companies that use non sustainable palm oil and ask them to change & label the products with palm oil
  • Get involved with the Orangutan Project
  • Join Zoos Victoria ‘Don’t Palm Us Off’ campaign: Make a donation or give a gift to the zoo or adopt a zoo animal.
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ran.org

Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil

Image result for Certified Sustainable Palm Oil CSPO rspoCertified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) is palm oil that is produced under a third-
party global certification scheme through the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO).

Only when palm oil is clearly labelled and food and grocery manufacturers are using 100% CSPO can consumers have the right to make informed choices.

Video Description: ‘WWF- How can palm oil be more sustainable? The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and WWF’s role in it: We hear a lot about the impacts of palm oil on forests and endangered species such as the orangutan. But did you know that solutions exist to produce palm oil that does not harm people or nature? Take 5 minutes to find out how the RSPO works and why WWF supports it as one strategy to help reduce deforestation and biodiversity loss in the tropics’

Zoos Victoria

Zoos Victoria‘s ‘Don’t Palm Us Off‘ campaign was launched in 2009 and the Zoopermarket in the Melbourne Zoos Orangutan Sanctuary was launched in 2013.

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In shelves they have popular products you can find a supermarkets and people can
use bar-code scanners to see if the product contains palm oil & if it has been produced sustainably. Orangutans are greatly threatened by the clearing of rain forest for palm oil trees in South East Asia. At the Zoopermarket people can send emails to companies to ask them to change their palm oil policy or to say ‘well done’ to those who have changed.

Video Description: ‘Zoos Victoria- Support Palm Oil Labelling: Food manufacturers are still allowed to include palm oil as a vegetable oil on their labels. So you don’t realise you may be contributing to the deaths of over 1000 orangutans a year as their habitat is destroyed through unsustainable palm oil production. Later this year selected Australian Ministers will meet to decide whether Australia will once and for all label palm oil on food products. Visit the website and add your name to the growing list of Australians who support palm oil labelling – www.zoo.org.au/palmoil‘

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Useful Videos, PDFs, Websites & Articles:

Videos:

Video Description: ‘The YEARS Project- Harrison Ford Learns How Palm Oil Is Linked to Deforestation: Actor Harrison Ford travels to Indonesia to learn why demand for palm oil in everyday products at the grocery store is driving massive deforestation. To learn more and take action, go to: www.ran.org/palm_oil Watch all of Harrison Ford’s story on Years of Living Dangerously: http://theyearsproject.com/story/last-stand/‘

Video Description: ‘TIME- Indonesia’s Palm Oil Industry is Destroying More Than Forests: Indigenous tribes deep in the Sumatran jungle have been kicked off their land by plantation owners and live a meager existence on the outskirts of society. However, they say they have a way to help combat deforestation that is chocking the region.’

Video Description: ‘Take Part- The Problem With Palm Oil | Fight for the Forests: Palm oil, the ubiquitous ingredient in scores of food and cosmetics products, is responsible for the destruction of rainforests home to orangutans, tigers, and other endangered wildlife.’

VIEWER DISCRETION: Watch with caution if sensitive.

Video Description: ‘Deforestation Indonesia’s Palm Oil Crisis and Orangutans: Deforestation is a serious issue in our world today, especially in Indonesia, where the palm oil industry is killing the orangutans. In this video, you will learn more about what you can do to stop this.’

PDFs:

Websites & Articles:

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