Why we are Committed to Remaining Palm Oil Free

Thankfully, more and more people are becoming aware of the danger involved in the pursuit of palm oil.  Yes, Palm Oil is a healthy fat with health benefits, but hey, there are many other sources of fat which are equally good for us.

Why you don’t want to consume or purchase palm oil can be summed up by the three big ethical categories: environmental, animal, and humanitarian reasons.

As WWF global reports on the environmental and social impacts of palm oil production: “Large areas of tropical forests and other ecosystems with high conservation values have been cleared to make room for vast monoculture oil palm plantations.”

Establishing this monoculture has some serious negative impacts on our environment on both local and global scales, such as soil erosion, air pollution, water pollution, and aiding in our man-made negative impact on climate change.

As for the social angle, palm oil plantations can pose disastrous consequences for the rights and livelihoods of local communities, their personhood often being ignored for expansion of the palm oil industry.

And lastly, animal wildlife suffers greatly as they are injured, killed, and displaced during deforestation. Orangutans have become some of the biggest victims of palm oil, and are killed with guns or machetes during implementation and harvesting.

It’s estimated that “over 50,000 orangutans have already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two decades”, with countless other animals alongside them. With the sort of sacrifices we make and lives we take from both human and animal kind in order to obtain this substance, if you didn’t know any better you’d think that our very lives depended on palm oil.

 

I’ll leave it up to you whether you choose to consume it.