Anyone else trying to avoid it as much as realistically possible? I've begun the habit of checking ingredients when out shopping and it's been a real eye-opener. The biggest surprise was the supermarket (Tesco) biscuit isle. Almost all of them contained palm oil (but Jaffa Cakes came to the rescue ).
Deforestation. Do a Google, lots of info. Edit: Here's a good summary for anyone who's interested and isn't aware of the issue. Tldr: cowboy industry responsible for much misery and threatening the extinction of Orangutan and Sumatran Tiger. "Palm oil is a type of edible vegetable oil that is derived from the palm fruit, grown on the African oil palm tree. Oil palms are originally from Western Africa, but can flourish wherever heat and rainfall are abundant. Today, palm oil is grown throughout Africa, Asia, North America, and South America, with 85% of all palm oil globally produced and exported from Indonesia and Malaysia; but most of the time not using sustainable measures. The industry is linked to major issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, climate change, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses in the countries where it is produced, as the land and forests must be cleared for the development of the oil palm plantations. According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area the equivalent size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to make way for palm oil production. This large-scale deforestation is pushing many species to extinction, and findings show that if nothing changes species like the orangutan could become extinct in the wild within the next 5-10 years, and Sumatran tigers less than 3 years. In total, tens of millions of tons of palm oil is produced annually, accounting for over 30% of the world’s vegetable oil production. This single vegetable oil is found in approximately 40-50% of household products in many developed countries like Australia. Palm oil can be present in a wide variety of products, including baked goods, confectionery, shampoo, cosmetics, cleaning agents, washing detergents and toothpaste." http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php
Yeah I try to avoid it where I can. Always get annoyed when I don't check something and get it home only to find out it uses it.
Charity begins at home. Good stuff, George. How long have you been doing it? Yea, it's everywhere, especially in chocolatey-biscuitey stuff it seems. There are lists of palm olive free products on various sites along with overall store ratings.
It's not something that's at the top of my to do list, I just try to remember to check before I buy stuff, it won't always sway me not to depending on the circumstances I'm afraid. I remember hearing how bad palm oil farming was a couple of years ago I guess, so maybe a year or two?
Yes, similar here. I think I'll always remember to check when shopping but if I'm say, eating out or at someone else's house then I'll eat what I'm given.
Well, it just so happens that my normal diet has none of it in at all, so take some solace in that, Yadda .
If a brand got rid of it and followed up with a heavy advertising campaign on how bad it is for everything, it seems like they could sway new customers whilst tarnishing the competition. A bit like Intels conflict free metals. Anyway not buying these products won't make much of a difference. Have you tried writing to these companies to actually tell them this is a concern for you as a potential customer?
I've had a read round and it appears that there are big efforts to engineer an alternative from yeast. I think many of these over consumption issues climate change, deforestation and the like will have to be solved with technology rather than changes in consumption. That is how most environmental obstacles humanity has come across in the past have been dealt with. It'd be nice to get rid of some things though like grouse shooting and hill sheep farming in the UK to start using natural flood defence that will keep the water away from the people. This country was mostly wooded before the Romans, the entire British countryside is artificial.
Not trying to mock your efforts but are you trying to avoid things like petroleum products etc. too. You can't be hard on one thing and ignore the other things that are damaging us and the environment.
Why not? Just because you can't cure the whole problem it doesn't mean you shouldn't try and help cure some of the problem. Anyway, I didn't start this thread for debate club. I appreciate that other people may not give a hoot about palm oil and people trying to avoid it, and that's fine, but I hope they use a bit of common sense and realise that this isn't that kind of thread.
I try to avoid it but I don't often buy things that have it in them. It is mostly rubbish food like chocolate, biscuits and some cosmetics as well. Only thing is stuff like Peanut butter that has quite a lot in it apparently. I'm obsessed with peanut butter. I started making my own homemade Peanut butter though; if palm oil is supposed to make things more delicious then it doesn't work because my own is much better than anything i've ever bought in a shop.
Must admit I'm very fond of peanut butter too. Is it difficult to make? Funnily enough it was the first thing I switched, with Meridian's palm oil free peanut butter (they seem like a good company and support a rainforest/orangutan initiative). http://shop.meridianfoods.co.uk/
I'm pretty sure peanut butter involves frying them off in some oil, seasoning them and then blitzing them into a paste.