2019 feature: This article describes one café worker’s approach to palm oil at the time. The environmental effects depend on how and where crops are produced.
In 2019, the expansion of oil palm plantations and its effect on wildlife prompted a Buxton café worker to consider the source of ingredients used at the café. Wild orangutans live on Borneo and Sumatra.
At Poole’s Cavern, managed by Buxton Civic Association, café worker Hattie described her research into food sustainability: “I researched food sustainability for my final year dissertation at the University of Derby and it was then the whole topic of palm oil was beginning to pop up in the news more and more.”
Hattie said she had worked at the café since graduating in 2016 and began looking at the products it used and sold in 2018.
In 2019 Hattie said she was looking for ingredients that were palm-oil-free or used sustainably sourced palm oil. “Palm oil is in so many products we use everyday, it’s so hard to avoid,” she said, describing the difficulty of identifying ingredients and their sources.
“Palm oil isn’t just used in food either, it’s used in toiletries such as soap, shower gel, shampoo and lipstick as well as detergents such as washing powder and cleaning products, it’s literally everywhere”.
Why is Palm Oil considered to be so bad?
Expansion of oil palm plantations has contributed to deforestation and habitat loss, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Orangutans spend much of their time in trees; habitat loss and hunting are among the threats they face.
A 2018 study estimated that more than 100,000 Bornean orangutans were lost between 1999 and 2015. It identified multiple pressures, including habitat loss, logging and killing; it did not attribute most losses solely to palm oil expansion.
Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutans are all critically endangered. Population estimates vary by study and date.
Sumatran tigers are also threatened by habitat loss and poaching on Sumatra.
WWF estimates that palm oil is present in close to half of packaged supermarket products. UK and EU food labelling rules require the specific source to be named when refined vegetable oils are grouped under “vegetable oils”; derivatives in non-food products can be harder to identify.
In 2019 Hattie described the difficulty of checking ingredient labels and encouraged businesses and consumers to consider the source of oils they use. Some ingredients, such as stearic acid, can come from several plant or animal fats; their presence does not by itself identify palm oil as the source.
Habitat loss and other pressures continue to threaten orangutans.
In 2019 the café reported introducing alternative cups and wooden cutlery.
What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil comes from the fruit of oil palms. Indonesia and Malaysia produce most of the world’s supply, although other countries also grow the crop.
What is sustainable palm oil?
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil publishes standards for certified production. Certification sets environmental and social requirements; it is not a guarantee that production has no impact. WWF notes that replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils can require more land and shift environmental pressure elsewhere.
What can you do?
Chester Zoo offers a sustainable palm oil shopping resource and the PalmOil Scan app for checking companies’ sourcing commitments.
For more information, see WWF’s palm oil guide and the RSPO standards.
Poole’s Cavern & Buxton Country Park, Green Lane, Buxton, SK17 9DH
T: 01298 26978
For current visitor information, see Buxton Civic Association.
Advertisement
