PALM OIL IS ONE OF THOSE UBIQUITOUS but overlooked products that have a hundred different uses.

It comes from the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis), which originated in West Africa, but which by the mid-1800s was discovered to grow well in Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia. Back then the oil was used for soap and to lubricate engines. By the mid-twentieth century, plantations dotted not only Malaysia but also Indonesia, which together now account for nine-tenths of the world’s supply of palm oil.

Today, the oil finds its way into many processed foods and into consumer products like lipstick, shampoo, and shaving cream. Many Asian households cook with it, and recently it has come to be used as a biofuel, helping to make palm oil a

$44 billion industry.112 Demand has pushed prices high and increased the number of palm-oil plantations. That in turn has contributed to needed economic growth in the countries that produce it, which is good news for them. But environmental groups are alarmed by the spread of palm-oil production, viewing it as damaging to wildlife and hazardous to the planet. In past decades, the area under cultivation for palm oil has mushroomed fifteenfold, eliminating peat land and forests in wide swathes of Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact, deforestation in Indonesia is so rapid that a recent U.N. report says that all of the country’s forests could be gone by 2022. Destroying forests and peat land to slake the world’s thirst for palm oil releases enormous quantities of carbon dioxide, thus contributing to climate change. In Sumatra and Borneo, palm-oil expansion also threatens the habitat of elephants, tigers, rhinos, and orangutans..........

Discussion Questions 1. The word “sustainable” is tossed around a lot. What does it mean to you?
2. Is it fair for environmentalists to single out companies like Unilever and Nestlé that are more socially responsible than most and which are relatively small consumers of palm oil, or is this justified simply as a matter of strategy?
3. How far must corporations go to ensure that the various ingredients used in their products are produced in an environmentally satisfactory way? What if there aren’t any truly sustainable options?
4. Can monitoring and self-regulation by industry groups like the Roundtable effectively address environmental issues, or will outside pressure always be needed?
Was Greenpeace right to act as it did, or should it have tried to work with the companies in question?
5. Preventing deforestation is important, but once previously forested land has been cleared, whether six months ago or sixty years ago, is there anything wrong about using it to produce palm oil now?
6. Used as a biofuel, palm oil reduces our dependence on petroleum. How do we balance that against deforestation?
7. Developing countries like Indonesia are responding to increased demand for palm oil by Western consumers.
Is it fair to the producer nations to insist that they restrict the expansion of this industry?