El viaje

Yesterday Joella wrote me and hinted that the strange unknown fruit that we posted in one of the previous posts is used to make palm oil. I ran around a bit and asked a couple of people what this strange red thing is, it’s omnipresent in the south of Mexico and also in Guatemala. Nobody could tell me a name though..

The scientific name is Elaeis guineensis. Two types of oil can be produced; crude palm oil comes from squeezing the fleshy fruit, and palm kernel oil which comes from crushing the kernel, or the stone in the middle of the fruit. Oil palm trees are native to Africa but were brought to South-East Asia just over 100 years ago as an ornamental tree crop. Now, Indonesia and Malaysia make up over 85% of global supply but there are 42 other countries that also produce palm oil.

At some point when Clem came back from Bali and did not want to eat Nutella anymore i started asking questions but never actually saw the fruit. Most of this stuff they learned in green school by the way. ( and i hope they dont forget it )

Palm oil is in nearly everything it’s in close to 50% of the packaged products we find in supermarkets, everything from pizza, doughnuts and chocolate, to deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste and lipstick. It’s also used in animal feed and as a biofuel.

Why is it in everything?

Palm oil is an extremely versatile oil that has many different properties and functions that makes it so useful and so widely used. It is semi solid at room temperature so can keep spreads spreadable, it is resistant to oxidation so can give products a longer shelf-life , it is stable at high temperatures so helps to give fried products a crispy and crunchy texture and it is also odourless and colourless so does not alter the look or smell of food products. In Asian and African countries palm oil is used widely as a cooking oil.

As well as being versatile, compared to other vegetable oils the oil palm is a very efficient crop, able to produce high quantities of oil over small areas of land, almost all year round. This makes it an attractive crop for growers and smallholders, who can rely on the steady income that palm oil provides.

And why did Clem not want to eat Nutella anymore?

Palm oil has been and continues to be a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the Orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino. This forest loss coupled with conversion of carbon rich peat soils are throwing out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. There also remains some exploitation of workers and child labour. These are serious issues that the whole palm oil sector needs to step up to address because it does not have to be this way.

Not buying palm oil containing products in the western world is a very tough endeavor though. Minimum people should know what they put on their bread, smear in their hair or grow in front of their noses.. But before starting a discussion:

as always, it is your choice !

Anyways, thanks for the hint Joella ♥️