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Time to focus on palm oil

By Wei Seng

How is this not as disastrous as the Gulf oil spill?

As the oil spill in the Gulf continues unabated, environmentalists and activists are interested in targetting another source of fuel that may be an alternative to crude oil but is probably also as controversial in terms of its sustainability: palm oil.

The Economist reports late last month about how plam oil, "a popular, cheap commodity" is being targetted because of the damage to rainforests and ecosystems as a result of the encroaching oil palm forests, especially in our neighbouring countries Malaysia and Indonesia. Palm oil may be considered an alternative source of fuel as biodiesel, but the deforestation that takes places to plant oil palm trees is certainly far from environmentally friendly or sustainable. And at a time when "oil (continues) to spill into the Gulf of Mexico, companies' environmental responsibilities have never been more public", which makes this period a prime time to target companies that use palm oil as well as palm oil producers (mainly in Malaysia and Indonesia).

Is it possible to swear off palm oil usage? Firms being targetted for palm oil use, from Unilever to Nestle, are investing their supply chains to make sure that the palm oil they use comes from sustainable sources and of industry standard, though it is hard to control whether the palm oil obtained comes from sustainable sources as even palm oil certified as sustainable will be "mixed in with the rest" by processors and traders, the middlemen in the palm oil trade. Possible (but costly) alternative could include coconut oil which Lush, a British cosmestics company, is using. Otherwise, adopt the strategy of food companies such as Marks & Spencer and Mars: reduce palm oil content for health and "nutritional reasons".

The article in The Economist, in particular, also focuses a lot on environmental activists' approaches to appeal and petition industry, commerce and government. It is worth reading about all the environmental activism and the different tack activists take with time as the public, with a maturing and more sophisticated view about the environment, expect more from companies and industries. This article comes as a timely reminder that we should scrutinise how clean our sources of fuel are, even those supposedly considered as alternatives. A razed forest is certainly not any less disastrous as an oil-polluted sea.