Popular Product that Leads to Deforestation

Palm oil trees grow well in tropical climates with lots of heat and rainfall, including countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America. Worldwide, 50 million tons of palm oil are produced every year, making it the most widely traded vegetable oil in the world. The majority of the edible oil is produced in Malaysia and Indonesia.

These trees popular because it is cheap to produce and can be used in a number of different applications. It has a high melting point and no trans fats, making it a popular cooking oil. Despite being an oil, it is semi-solid at room temperature. Thanks to its high fat content, palm oil is also used in non-food products that are designed to moisturize, such as shampoo, lipstick, and moisturizer.

A 2016 Greenpeace Report found that in Indonesia alone, palm oil has led to the loss of 31 million hectares of forest (more than 76 million acres), an area equivalent to the entire country of Germany.

Environmental Impacts

To build palm oil plantations, producers clear trees in tropical rain forests, destroying the bio diverse regions. Deforestation is a significant contributor to climate change; when the forests are lost, carbon is released into the atmosphere, causing global warming.

Wildlife Impacts

Deforestation causes animals to lose their homes. During the production process, animals are often injured or killed. Orangutans and Sumatran tigers are at risk of extinction and several others species, including the Sumatran rhinoceros, sun bear, and clouded leopard, are also suffering because of palm oil production.

Choosing Palm Oil Free Products

It’s possible to choose products without palm oil to protect the environment – but identifying which products contain the destructive ingredient is harder than it seems. On labels, palm oil might be listed as palm kernel, palm kernel oil, palm fruit oil, palmate, palmitate, palm olein, stearate, stearic acid, ethyl palmitate, or several other iterations.

Bali food store we carefully select palm-oil free products for our store. This is our commitment to care for the environment.

We also want to support OFI (Orangutan foundation international), Orangutan Foundation International (OFI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of wild orangutans and their rain forest habitat.