Firstly watch this video on YouTube for this to make sense:
The Sum Of Us posted this fantastic video on the 11th January 2015. I’m not a media critic but I think this is brilliant in its way to capture its audience and have that shock effect. What struck me most was that blunt ending. It’s such a powerful and effective video; they’ve done their work well. Really makes you think doesn’t it?
The problem featured in this video is that some of the Dorito flavours contain palm oil. The company that makes them, PepsiCo, buys 427,500 tonnes of palm oil every year. As I’m sure you’re aware, this leads to the destruction of the rainforest and the death of over 1000 Sumatran orang-utans every year. Also deforestation in South East Asia has made Indonesia the third largest carbon emitter on Earth. Workers are also being enticed into the plantations, having passports confiscated and are being beaten and locked away by the people who own the plantations. It’s effectively slave labour just to make the largest profits possible. It’s barbaric. PepsiCo isn’t the only company though and so the problem is enormous!
But it made me wonder; can we eat and shop palm oil free? Simply, no. A quick search from environmentalist websites shows that most common household products contain the stuff. From our favourite chocolate to baby oil, cereal and treats to bread and toothpaste. We can’t get away from it. Trying to search for palm oil free products comes up with obscure brands that simply aren’t easy to get hold of. What can we do? Well sustainably sourced palm oil is an option. This oil and kernel oil comes from standards devised by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). According to them, 40% of the world’s palm oil producers are members of the RSPO which includes many product manufacturers, retailers, environmental and social non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Don’t we wish it was 100% but’s a positive. A story closer to home for me though is that we discovered the cattle feed we use to have palm kernel meal in. This is a by-product and so ends up in the feed. We asked our suppliers about this because we definitely get through a lot of the stuff. We found that this has come from a sustainable source. Good! But what’s the craziest is that the organic cattle feed contained palm kernel meal that came from palm oil production that isn’t sustainable. Its production is cutting down the rainforest! Now isn’t that contradicting the whole idea of organic?
A solution? Undoubtedly it’s extremely complicated. The issue touches so many people and any change could impact many people negatively but also could effectively save the rainforest. It’s a balance that is so very fragile. Right now as consumers the best we can do is demand change. Give them hell. If consumer choice changes, producers adapt to it. I urge you to go and check out the Sum of Us (link below). They are running a petition to get PepsiCo to stop shying away from the truth and face up to what they are doing, go and have a look and see what action you can take.
Links and sources:
http://action.sumofus.org/a/doritos-palm-oil/?sub=homepage
http://greenpalm.org/about-palm-oil/the-rspo-sustainable-palm-oil