Worst Food Additive Ever? It's in Half of All Foods We Eat and Its Production Destroys Rainforests and Enslaves Children

Worst Food Additive Ever? It's in Half of All Foods We Eat and Its Production Destroys Rainforests and Enslaves Children
The production of this ingredient causes jaw-dropping 
amounts of deforestation (and with it, carbon emissions) and human 
rights abuses. 
October 24, 2011 �| � 
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On August 10, police and security for the massive palm 
oil corporation Wilmar International (of which Archer Daniels Midland is the second largest shareholder) stormed a small, indigenous village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They came with bulldozers and 
guns, destroying up to 70 homes, evicting 82 families, and arresting 18 
people. Then they blockaded the village, keeping the villagers in -- and journalists out. (Wilmar claims it has done no wrong.)
The village, Suku Anak Dalam, was home to an indigenous group that 
observes their own traditional system of land rights on their ancestral 
land and, thus, lacks official legal titles to the land. This is common 
among indigenous peoples around the world -- so common, in fact, that it is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Indonesia, for the record, voted in favor of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. Yet the government routinely sells indigenous peoples' ancestral land to 
corporations. Often the land sold is Indonesia's lowland rainforest, a biologically rich area home to endangered species like the orangutan, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran tiger, and the plant Rafflesia arnoldii, which produces the world's largest flower.
So why all this destruction? Chances are you'll find the answer in 
your pantry. Or your refrigerator, your bathroom, or even under your 
sink. The palm oil industry is one of the largest drivers of 
deforestation in Indonesia. Palm oil and palm kernel oil, almost unheard of a decade or two ago, are now unbelievably found in half of 
all packaged foods in the grocery store (as well as body care and 
cleaning supplies). These oils, traditional in West Africa, now come 
overwhelmingly from Indonesia and Malaysia. They cause jawdropping 
amounts of deforestation (and with it, carbon emissions) and human 
rights abuses.
"The recipe for palm oil expansion is cheap land, cheap labor, and a 
corrupt government, and unfortunately Indonesia fits that bill," says 
Ashley Schaeffer of Rainforest Action Network.
The African oil palm provides two different oils with different 
properties: palm oil and palm kernel oil. Palm oil is made from the 
fruit of the tree, and palm kernel oil comes from the seed, or "nut," 
inside the fruit. You can find it on ingredient lists under a number of 
names, including palmitate, palmate, sodium laureth sulphate, sodium 
lauryl sulphate, glyceryl stearate, or stearic acid. Palm oil even turns up in so-called "natural," "healthy," or even "cruelty-free" products, 
like Earth Balance (vegan margarine) or Newman-O's organic Oreo-like 
cookies. Palm oil is also used in "renewable" biofuels.
A hectare of land (2.47 acres) produces, on average, 3.7 metric tons 
of palm oil, 0.4 metric tons of palm kernel oil, and 0.6 tons of palm 
kernel cake. (Palm kernel cake is used as animal feed.) In 2009, 
Indonesia produced over 20.5 million metric tons, and Malaysia produced 
over 17.5 million metric tons. As of 2009, the U.S. was only the seventh largest importer of palm oil in the world, but as the second largest 
importer of palm kernel oil, it ranks third in the world as a driver of 
deforestation for palm oil plantations.
Indonesia has lost 46 percent of its forests since 1950, and the 
forests have recently disappeared at a rate of about 1.5 million 
hectares (an area larger than the state of Connecticut) per year. Of the 103.3 million hectares of remaining forests in 2000, only 88.2 million 
remained in 2009. At that time, an estimated 7.3 million hectares of oil palm plantations were already established, mostly on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. Indonesia plans to continue the palm oil 
expansion, hoping to produce an additional 8.3 million metric tons by 
2015 -- this means a 71 percent expansion in area devoted to palm oil in the coming years.
At stake are not only endangered species and human lives, but carbon 
emissions. One of the ecosystems at risk is Indonesia's peat swamps, 
where soil contains an astounding 65 percent organic matter. (Most soils contain only two to 10 percent organic matter.) Laurel 
Sutherlin of Rainforest Action Network describes the draining and often 
burning of these peat swamps as "a carbon bomb." Destruction of its peat swamps as well as its rainforests makes Indonesia the world's third largest carbon emitter after the U.S. and China.
Among the horror stories coming out of Southeast Asian palm oil plantations are accounts ofchild slave labor. Ferdi and Volario, ages 14 and 21, respectively, were each met by 
representatives of the Malaysian company Kuala Lampur Kepong in their 
North Sumatra villages. They were offered high-paying jobs with good 
working conditions, and they jumped at the opportunity. According to an 
account by Rainforest Action Network: "The two worked grueling hours 
each day spraying oil palm trees with toxic chemical fertilizers, 
without any protection to shield their hands, face or lungs. After work, Ferdi and Volario were forced inside the camp where they'd stay 
overnight under lock and key, guarded by security. If they had to use 
the bathroom, they'd do their best to hold it until morning or relieve 
themselves in plastic bags or shoes." They escaped after two months and 
were never paid for their work.
What is the industry doing about such horrific claims? It has 
established the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Kuala Lampur 
Kepong, Wilmar International, and Archer Daniels Midland are all 
members, and so are their customers, Cargill, Nestl� and Unilever, as 
well as environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund and 
Conservation International. But, according to Sutherlin, membership in 
RSPO means nothing -- other than that an organization paid its dues. 
"That's the first level of greenwash," says Sutherlin.
RSPO certifies some products and companies, and Sutherlin says that 
does have some meaning, but leaves major loopholes open. For example, 
there are no carbon or climate standards, and there have been problems 
with the implementation of social safeguards. "It's been a spotty record about their ability to enforce the standards for how people are treated and how communities are affected," notes Sutherlin. Yet, he says, RSPO 
is "the best game in town."
Rather than simply relying on RSPO's certification, Rainforest Action Network has focused its campaign on the U.S. agribusiness giant 
Cargill, which has a hand in fully 25 percent of palm oil on the global market. Rainforest Action Network is asking Cargill to sign on to a set of social and environmental safeguards and to provide public transparency on its palm oil operations. If 
Cargill cleans up its act, perhaps it will help put pressure on other 
major multinationals like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and Nestl�, 
which also source palm oil from unethical suppliers like Wilmar 
International.
Journalists have also criticized environmental groups for "cozy 
relationships with corporate eco-nasties." The World Wildlife Fund has come under attack for its partnership with Wilmar, the corporation that attacked a 
Sumatran village. Its involvement in RSPO serves as a reminder of the 
accusations in a�2010 Nation article, which claimed that�"many of the green organizations meant to be leading the fight are busy shoveling up hard cash from the world's worst 
polluters--and burying science-based environmentalism in return." (WWF 
says it received no payment from Wilmar in this particular case.)
The ugly issue of palm oil even touches the beloved American icon, 
the Girl Scout cookie. When Girl Scouts Madison Vorva and Rhiannon 
Tomtishen began a project to save the orangutan for their Bronze Awards, they discovered the link between habitat loss and palm oil. Then they 
looked at a box of Girl Scout cookies and found palm oil on the list of 
ingredients. The two 11-year-olds -- who are now ages 15 and 16 -- began a campaign to get the Girl Scouts to remove palm oil from its cookies.
It took five years to get a response from the supposedly wholesome Girl Scouts USA (whose 2012 slogan is "Forever Green"). While the organization ignored its own members for several years, it 
was unable to ignore the coverage the girls received from Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and several major TV networks. Once the story was so well-covered by 
the media, Girl Scouts USA responded, promising it would try to move to a sustainable source of palm oil by 2015. In the meantime, it would 
continue buying palm oil that could have come from deforested lands or 
plantations that use child slave labor, but would also buy GreenPalm 
certificates, which fund a price premium that goes to producers 
following RSPO's best practice guidelines.
So what should consumers do? For the time being, avoiding products 
containing palm oil is probably your best bet. Since palm oil is so 
ubiquitous this will likely mean opting to buy fewer processed foods 
overall. Don't forget to check your beauty and cleaning products, too. 
In a handful of cases, such as Dr. Bronner's soaps, palm oil comes from fair trade, organic sources. But this is hardly the norm, and with the immense amount of palm oil used in the U.S., it's 
unlikely that sustainable sources could cover all of the current 
demand.�
Jill Richardson is the founder of the blog La Vida Locavore and a member of the Organic Consumers Association policy advisory board. She is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It..

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