Is it time to review our love of chocolate? Evidence from Colombia suggests it is, with a report from aid charity, War on Want, claiming right-wing paramilitaries are seizing land from subsistence farmers to grow oil palm over large areas. The Colombian government is strongly backing the push for palm, though perhaps not the tactics. It wants the area planted with the crop to increase ten-fold, to three million hectares within ten years. This is partly to cash in on the soaring demand for biofuel. Palm growers’ representatives say land grabs are isolated. There can be few products so widely used as palm oil. It is a common ingredient in chocolate, margarine, soap and toothpaste. It is rare to find a jar of peanut butter not containing palm oil. The UK is one of the largest consumers of Colombia’s palm oil, according to War on Want. And Britain’s new law forcing oil companies to sell more biofuel or face a fine, will increase our dependence even more. If we were to list the number of experts warning against existing biofuels policies, the tally would be quite staggering. It would include members of the UK government, the European Commission, the UN and numerous conservation and development groups including the RSPB.
Despite this, UK and EU politicians are planning to increase the amount of biofuels motorists must use, even though biofuels are currently produced with no environmental standards. The evidence that biofuels are causing the destruction of rainforest, peatlands and grasslands, all of which store vast amounts of carbon and host rare wildlife, is indisputable. The evidence that biofuels cut greenhouse gas emissions and help tackle climate change, is slim. War on Want’s report is yet more proof that biofuels are causing huge problems both for people and wildlife. To date they have not cut our emissions and, put bluntly, there is no current evidence that they will do so any time soon. Weaning ourselves off chocolate - or cakes or crisps for that matter - is probably an impossible task. Cutting our demand for biofuel by dropping plans to increase its use is a far easier goal to achieve.
Read the Guardian's report here
It is terrifying to read day after day the horrendous destruction caused by new Palm Oil plantations being planned around the world. It was bad enough when palm oil was "simply" used in products found on the supermarket shelves but now with this ludicrous biofuel policy, what chance does the environment and the people who live in it have?
But surely the point of this article is not that we should wean ourselves off chocolate but rather, as consumers, that we should wean ourselves from buying products that contain palm oil?
For a couple of years now my partner and I have made a point of weaning ourselves off these products. Easier said than done! The real problem is that most products that use palm oil do not list palm oil in their ingredients - it is often listed as Vegetable Oil! This is partly because manufacturers often use oil blends so just list one item to cover all. This means that we have to reject all products with the ingredient listing containing "vegetable oil". Margarines, spreadable butter, pretty much all biscuits except all-butter shortbread, many toiletries, many ready made meals to name just a few. It's tough, and we don't always succeed but I estimate that we have reduced our palm oil consumption by 80% without any real hardship, but by investing a little time examining a product before purchase. We also only buy fairtrade chocolate, bird-friendly coffee and MSC approved fish.
But we can do nothing about the palm oil in our petrol apart from making our voices heard to politicians to change their minds about biofuels and supporting the organisations like the RSPB that are fighting to save our planet and those who live on it