A saturated solution to a growing environmental and nutritional dilemma
What is Palm Oil?
It’s important to recognize a fact about science: it’s not hindered or held back by ideology or politics. At least, it’s not supposed to. Science leaves morality and ethics to the philosophers and ethicists, and, in the past, has come to blows with the very people it has hoped to benefit. Science is devoid of abject ideology, and the only cases in which research has been used to deficit humanity have been when the researchers have had the express desire to do so.
I say this to define the limit on scientific thinking. We are only bound by the lines we choose to cross, and defined by those we refuse to look past.
Palm oil is a vegetable oil derived from the pulp of the fruit of palm trees. It’s incredibly cheap to produce, and accounts for 65 per cent of all vegetable oils traded internationally (according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Palm oil is found in brands of soap, shampoo, ice-cream, cheesecake, peanut butter, chocolate spread, and almost any other conceivable popular foodstuff.
Palm oil is also one of those double-sided nutritional choices that happen to be relatively cheap and easy to produce, but result in widespread harm across a multitude of environmental, economic, and ethical sectors.
How Does Palm Oil Work?
On its own, palm oil is nothing more than a different kind of vegetable oil. It’s a fat that contains more saturated fats than unsaturated fats, and is not a significant source of cholesterol. Like all saturated fats, its intake can increase LDL and HDL cholesterol levels. Suffice it to say, cooking with palm oil is significantly better than cooking with lard.
Interestingly enough, palm oil and its derivatives are a form of biofuel and biodiesel. Palm oil shells and oil palm fruit bunches, specifically, can be used to produce biofuel.
However, palm oil production has skyrocketed since its discovery as a cheap replacement for other vegetable oils, and the result has been severe environmental damage in the parts of the world where it can be grown. Numerous parts of Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Sumatra have suffered widespread deforestation in order to increase the world’s supply of palm oil bearing trees. Species like the orangutan and Sumatran tiger are critically endangered as a result of palm oil production. The WWF expects palm oil production to double by 2020, which will only continue to exacerbate this ongoing problem.
Furthermore, the increased attention afforded to palm oil tree plantations has led governments in Asia to ignore human rights and conservation in order to produce a profit.
Why is Palm Oil Important?
Instead of questioning palm oil’s importance, I’ll offer a different question, instead: why should anyone care about palm oil? For an issue that will almost never directly affect us, why should we concern ourselves with habitat loss, human rights violations, and species endangerment? This question of concern is the chief question of the 21st Century, if not the entire human species. Why should anyone really care about anything that doesn’t directly affect their lives?
We should care – we should concern ourselves – simply because we have a moral imperative to raise our collective voices and ask for alternatives. Palm oil production has increased for chiefly fiscal reasons; it’s cheap and easy to acquire, and it helps feed significant chunks of our species. However, the substance is harmful to its environment. It hurts people, it hurts animals, and it hurts parts of our world. These reasons alone should be enough cause for concern.
What is the Future of Palm Oil?
Speaking from a purely rational perspective, palm oil production is going to increase in order to insure that we can feed our ever-growing population. Once again, palm oil production is expected to double by 2020, which means that soil erosion as a result of forest clearing, air pollution as a result of the smoke that results from deforestation, and climate change will continue to be unavoidable.
I will make a single suggestion, however. Find alternatives to products that include palm oil as an ingredient. The human tongue is capable of tasting an enormous spectrum of flavours; perhaps it’s best to eliminate palm oil as one of those flavours, however.