6 Reliable Ways to Avoid Palm Oil
What can we do to stop supporting the corrupt Palm Oil companies?
The effects of monoculture farming, specifically for palm oil alone, has removed 14 million acres of rainforest in Borneo (44 million acres worldwide), uprooted thousands of families and killed over 50,000 orangutans.
While making this film in West Kalimantan (West Borneo), it was apparent to me that many natives were not aware of the international usage of palm oil. But they were aware of the rate at which companies invested in palm oil were demolishing their sacred forests.
Therefore, it is our responsibility, the consumers, to make sure we buy products that do not destroy homes and indigenous cultures for the sake of our Pop-Tarts. Yes... palm oil is a main ingredient in Pop-Tarts… killing indigenous ways of life.
Pictured:
Indigenous family owned land in West Borneo, gradually being turned into Palm Oil plantations.
6 Ways we can help, let’s go:
1. Avoid palm oil when shopping for foods, shampoo, cosmetics, cleaning products etc. Here is a list of pseudo-names that companies use to sneak “palm oil” in to the ingredients list:
Anything with the word “Palm” in it
Vegetable Oil
Palm Kernel Oil
Palm Stearine
Palmate/Palmitate
Palmitic Acid
Palmityl Alcohol
Palm Fruit Oil
Vitamin A Palmitate
Vegetable Glycerine
and more….
2. Companies that use palm oil and are directly linked to rainforest destruction:
Nestlé (Kit Kat, NESCAFÉ, Perrier)
Mondelēz (Cadbury)
General Mills
The Hershey Company
Kellogg’s
Kraft Heinz Company
L’Oréal
Pepsico
Colgate
Unilever
Pictured:
Ibu and I using my drone to inspect the condition of her land. A mainstream palm oil company has started to illegally plant on her territory.
To watch Ibu’s interview and learn about her situation, locate the video at the top of this page or click here.
3. Fun Fact.
If a product's “saturated fat” content makes up more than 40% of its total fat content, it will almost always contain palm oil.
4. My favorite helpful tip- APPS!
Luckily for us, the digital age we live in can cook up (no pun intended) some amazing applications on our smart phones. Using apps like: “Sustainable Palm Oil Shopping”, “RSPO” or “Palm Oil Scanner” can aid your shopping vigilance in avoiding products that contain palm oil.
5. Substitute oils that countries from around the world have adopted and rely on.
Butter is a world-wide substitute to cooking oils, but not reliable if you are vegan.
In the Ukraine and Nepal, sunflower seed oil is common.
Italy lives off of olive oil.
In Bangladesh people often use mustard seed oil.
Southeast Asia invented ghee, which is a clarified butter. Ghee has less lactose than butter.
Pumpkin seed oil is highly common in central Europe, specifically Austria and Slovenia.
In many tropical places such as Indonesia and the Philippines, coconut oil is easily accessible.
And most of China’s population relies on canola oil.
6. Look for these labels world wide to confirm that they are palm oil free.
The International Palm Oil Free Certification Trademark & Accreditation Programme
Orangutan Alliance's label
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
Specific grocery stores are starting to put pressure on these companies but, it’s not enough. We see you Whole Foods, and we support you immensely!
We as consumers must make our frustrations obvious. Talk to your local grocery store, call your favorite chip company and check out the ingredients of everyday items in the grocery store. Know what you are consuming and examine the source at which your food comes from. If everyone switched three items with palm oil to three items without, grocery stores and company’s would see this. A gradual change is what we need. Rome wasn’t built in a day…
Like the beautiful people in my video, our ancestors also found their ingredients in the forest themselves. Let’s be better. Let’s be smarter.
Potato chips, fruit snacks and shampoos are nice but at this day and age so many people people are making palm oil free, safe options.
Who pays the price for these decisions?
Read Into More Creator’s Thoughts
