WEBVTT - Why Is Palm Oil in So Many Things?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and you might not know what palm

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<v Speaker 1>oil is, but chances are, without realizing it, you consume

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<v Speaker 1>it in some form or many different ones every day.

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<v Speaker 1>It's an ingredient and about half of all packaged products

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<v Speaker 1>sold at the supermarket, from instant noodles and ice cream

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<v Speaker 1>to pizza and packaged bread, and it's also found in lipsticks, soap, shampoo,

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<v Speaker 1>and detergent. In other countries, it's heavily used as a

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<v Speaker 1>biofuel for cars and trucks. Indeed, the world consumed seventy

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<v Speaker 1>five point eight million tons that's about sixty eight point

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<v Speaker 1>eight million metric tons of palm oil in alone, which

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<v Speaker 1>amounted to more than a third of all of the

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<v Speaker 1>vegetable oils used on the planet. Palm oil's ubiquitous presence

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<v Speaker 1>and the world's growing consumption of it has a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of environmental activists deeply worried. The Union of Concerned Scientists,

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<v Speaker 1>for example, warns that cultivation of the oil palm tree,

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<v Speaker 1>which produces the fruit from which palm oil is extracted,

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<v Speaker 1>is driving the hutting down and burning of tropical rainforests

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<v Speaker 1>in Southeast Asia, which is increasing health risks from pollution

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<v Speaker 1>and pumping planet warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as

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<v Speaker 1>well as driving animals such as orangutans, tigers, rhinoceros, and

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<v Speaker 1>elephants from their habitats. So what is palm oil anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>and how did it get to be so ubiquitous in

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<v Speaker 1>modern civilization. It wasn't always that way. Palm oil is

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<v Speaker 1>produced from the fruit of the oil palm tree, which

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<v Speaker 1>is native to West Africa for centuries. It's been part

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<v Speaker 1>of the traditional diet in that region as a source

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<v Speaker 1>of fat and other nutrients, and is utilized as a

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<v Speaker 1>cooking oil and an ingredient in folk medicines. While the

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<v Speaker 1>palm oil that's processed for use in products is tasteless,

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<v Speaker 1>palm oil grown in the traditional fashion in West Africa

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<v Speaker 1>actually has an intense taste. It's an ingredient in soups

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<v Speaker 1>and other dishes. Farmers planted it in forests as both

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<v Speaker 1>part of agriculture and forestry, but the oil palm didn't

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<v Speaker 1>stay in Africa. Europeans brought the oil palm to Southeast

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<v Speaker 1>Asia in the eighteen hundreds and tried growing it on plantations,

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<v Speaker 1>but it didn't start catching on in a big way

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<v Speaker 1>until the mid nine teen sixties. One big booster was

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<v Speaker 1>the World Bank, which spent nearly one billion dollars to

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<v Speaker 1>fund oil palm cultivation in an effort to promote economic

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<v Speaker 1>development and lift people in rural areas out of poverty.

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<v Speaker 1>About half of that money went to fund a series

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<v Speaker 1>of projects in Indonesia, which became the world's biggest producer.

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<v Speaker 1>Between the nineteen sixties and the two thousands, the amount

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<v Speaker 1>of land devoted to growing oil palm cultivation increased eightfold

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<v Speaker 1>and spread to tropical areas across the globe. We spoke

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<v Speaker 1>with Jeff Connt, director of Friends of the Earth's International

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<v Speaker 1>Forests Program, which works to protect the rights of forest

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<v Speaker 1>dependent people's by addressing the economic issues driving forest destruction.

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<v Speaker 1>He explained the plant was improved and hybridized, and varieties

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<v Speaker 1>were developed that grew very well in large monoculture plantations.

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<v Speaker 1>Palm oil became a lucrative crop to grow. It's efficient

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<v Speaker 1>in terms of crop yield per acre of land. Additionally,

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<v Speaker 1>new uses were developed. Cotton said it's good for replacing

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<v Speaker 1>margarine in that it's got a high melting point and

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<v Speaker 1>when it's refined, it has no flavor that makes it

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<v Speaker 1>good for baking. In the mid two thousands, after the

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<v Speaker 1>US Food and Drug Administration started requiring the listing of

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<v Speaker 1>trans fats on nutrition labels because they were linked to

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<v Speaker 1>heart disease, processed food manufacturers began looking to palm oil

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<v Speaker 1>as a trans fat free alternative. Then, around the same time,

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<v Speaker 1>the US and other Western nations drafted environmental laws encouraging

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<v Speaker 1>the use of vegetable oils such as palm oil is

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<v Speaker 1>fuel as a way to reduce carbon dioxide output and

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<v Speaker 1>slow global warming. But that well intentioned move backfired because

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<v Speaker 1>the clearing and burning of forests for palm oil cultivation

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<v Speaker 1>actually led to the release of massive amounts of carbon

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<v Speaker 1>that had been stored in the peat on forest floors.

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<v Speaker 1>Conna explained, oil palm trees often grow best in places

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<v Speaker 1>where rainforests were It's definitely a factor in deforestation. Oil

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<v Speaker 1>palm cultivation brought other problems as well. Monoculture cultivation is

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<v Speaker 1>needed to produce a profit, and that wears out the

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<v Speaker 1>soil after twenty five or thirty years, Content said, leaving

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<v Speaker 1>the land unusable without intense and expensive effort. And while

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<v Speaker 1>the palm oil industry provide employment for millions of people.

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<v Speaker 1>It's also been plagued by accusations of human rights abuses,

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<v Speaker 1>including the use of child workers. December eighteen article in

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<v Speaker 1>Sierra Magazine, for example, describes Guatemalans working sixteen hour days

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<v Speaker 1>on oil palm plantations and suggests the use of oil

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<v Speaker 1>palm cultivation contributes to food scarcity because it's taking up

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<v Speaker 1>land where local farmers otherwise could be growing corn, beans, rice,

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<v Speaker 1>and other subsistence crops. In response to the growing criticism

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<v Speaker 1>of palm oil, various stakeholders, agricultural producers, manufacturers who use

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<v Speaker 1>palm oil and products, banks and investors, and some environmental organizations,

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<v Speaker 1>among others, has started a movement to promote sustainable palm oil.

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<v Speaker 1>The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, founded in two thousand four,

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<v Speaker 1>has established a set of principles which includes avoiding use

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<v Speaker 1>of forests that provide habitat to endangered species, reduction in

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<v Speaker 1>the use of pesticides and burning to clear land, fair

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<v Speaker 1>treatment of workers according to local and international labor standards,

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<v Speaker 1>and consulting with local communities before new plantations are developed.

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<v Speaker 1>According to the RSPO website, nine of global palm oil

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<v Speaker 1>production is now certified as sustainable, but in addition to

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<v Speaker 1>promoting sustainability, it's crucial to stop the growth of oil

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<v Speaker 1>palm cultivation and reduce the amount of land devoted to it.

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<v Speaker 1>Consumers can help drive such change. Knat said, because most

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<v Speaker 1>palm oil in the US is found in junk food

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<v Speaker 1>and cosmetics, the best way to avoid it is to

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<v Speaker 1>not eat junk food. Today's episode was written by Patrick

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<v Speaker 1>Jake Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang. Check out our

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<v Speaker 1>online shop at public dot com slash brainstuff, and for

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<v Speaker 1>more on this and lots of other sustainable topics, visit

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<v Speaker 1>our home planet, how stuff works dot com.