How the world became addicted to palm oil | New

OOnce upon a time, in a country far away, a magic fruit. This fruit could be pressed to produce a very special oil that would make the biscuits healthier, the soap more sparkling and crisper crisps. The oil could even make the lipstick smoother and prevent the ice from melting. Because of these wonderful qualities, people from around the world came to buy the fruit and its oil.

In the places where the fruit came from, people burned the forest so that more trees could be planted, producing a lot of unpleasant smoke and sending all the creatures out of the forest. When the trees were burned, they emitted a gas that warmed the air. Then everyone was upset because they liked the creatures of the forest and thought that the temperature was already hot enough. Some people decided to stop using oil, but most of the time things went as before and the forest continued to burn.

It's a true story. Except that it is not magic. The fruit of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), which grows in tropical climates, contains the most versatile vegetable oil in the world. It can withstand frying without spoiling and mix well with other oils. Its combination of different types of fat and its refined consistency make it a popular ingredient in packaged bakery products. Its low production costs make it cheaper than frying oils such as cottonseed or sunflower seeds. It provides the foaming agent in virtually all shampoos, liquid soaps and detergents. Cosmetics manufacturers prefer it to animal tallow for its ease of application and low price. It is increasingly being used as a cheap raw material for biofuels, especially in the European Union. It acts as a natural preservative in processed foods and actually raises the melting point of ice cream. Palm oil can be used as an adhesive that binds the particles in the fiber boards. The trunks and fronds of oil palm can be transformed into everything from plywood to the composite body of the Malaysian national automobile.

Global palm oil production has been steadily increasing for five decades. Between 1995 and 2015, annual production increased fourfold, from 15.2 to 62.6 million tonnes. By the year 2050, it is expected to quadruple again, to reach 240 million tons. The imprint of palm oil production is staggering: the plantations required for its production account for 10% of all the world's cropland. Today, 3 billion people in 150 countries use products containing palm oil. On a global scale, we consume an average of 8 kg of palm oil a year.

85% come from Malaysia and Indonesia, where global demand for palm oil has helped increase revenues, especially in rural areas – but at the cost of terrible destruction from the environment and often accompanied by violations of human and labor rights. Fires that clean forests and create land for more palm groves are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in Indonesia, a country of 261 million people. The financial incentive to produce more palm oil helps warm the planet, while destroying the unique habitat of Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinos and orangutans, which drives them to extinction.

Yet, consumers are often unaware that they even use these products. Palm Oil Investigations, dubbed the "Palm Oil Watchdog," lists more than 200 common ingredients in palm oil-based food, personal care, and personal care products, about Only 10% contain the word "palm".

How is palm oil insinuated in every corner of our lives? No innovation has caused a surge in palm oil consumption. Instead, it was the right product at the right time, industry after industry, with everyone adopting it to replace ingredients and never turn around. At the same time, producing countries view palm oil as a poverty alleviation system, while international financial organizations view it as a growth engine for developing economies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pushed Malaysia and Indonesia to produce more.

With the growing development of the palm industry, environmental advocates and environmental organizations such as Greenpeace have begun to sound the alarm about its devastating effects on carbon emissions and the Habitat of wildlife. (However, it is not impossible to produce palm oil in a sustainable manner, and several organizations certify sustainable producers.) In reaction, a reaction against palm oil is expected. is developed: last April, the Icelandic supermarket was committed to reducing palm oil from its own brand products by the end of 2018. In December, Norway banned imports destined for the production of biofuels.

But at a time when the impact of palm oil had grown in importance, it was so deeply ingrained in the consumer economy that it might be too late to eliminate it. (It is telling that Iceland found itself unable to meet its 2018 commitment. Instead, the company ended up removing its branding of foods containing 39 palm oil rather than palm oil from all its branded foods.)

Determining which products contain palm oil, not to mention the way in which it was obtained in a sustainable manner, requires an almost supernatural level of consumer awareness. In any case, greater awareness of Western consumers will not have much impact, given that Europe and the United States account for less than 14% of global demand. More than half of global demand comes from Asia.

It is 20 years after the first warnings about deforestation in Brazil that consumer actions have slowed – and not stopped – the destruction. With palm oil, "the reality is that the western part of the world is [a small share] Neil Blomquist, General Manager of Natural Habitats, based in Colorado, produces palm oil in Ecuador and Sierra Leone and achieves the highest level of sustainability certification. "So, there is not much incentive to change."

---

PThe global domination of alm oil is the result of five factors: first, it has replaced the less healthy fats in western foods. Secondly, producers have insisted that prices remain low. Third, it has replaced the more expensive oils in home and personal care products. Fourth, again, because it is cheap, it has been widely adopted as cooking oil in Asian countries. Finally, as these Asian countries became richer, they began to consume more fat, mainly in the form of palm oil.

The widespread adoption of palm oil began with processed foods. In the 1960s, scientists began to warn that the high saturated fat content of butter could increase the risk of heart disease. Food manufacturers, including the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever, have begun replacing it with margarine made from vegetable oils low in saturated fats. In the early 1990s, however, it became clear that the process of making the oils in margarine, called partial hydrogenation, actually created a different type of fat – trans fat – that was even more unhealthy than saturated fat. The Unilever Board of Directors found the formation of a scientific consensus on trans fats and decided to get rid of them. "Unilever has always been very aware of consumers' health interests in its products," said James W. Kinnear, Unilever's board member at the time.

Failover occurs suddenly. In 1994, Gerrit van Duijn, director of the Unilever refineries, had received a call from his chefs in Rotterdam. Twenty Unilever factories in 15 countries were to remove partially hydrogenated oils from 600 fat blends and replace them with trans fat free ingredients.

The project, for reasons that Van Duijn can not explain, was called "Paddington". First, he had to find what could replace trans fats while retaining its favorable properties, such as staying solid at room temperature – a necessity for inexpensive butter substitutes as well as manufactured products such as biscuits. In the end, there was only one choice: palm oil in oil – either palm oil (extracted from the fruit) or l? palm kernel oil (from the seed). No other oil could be refined to the consistency needed for various Unilever margarine and bakery mixes without producing trans fats. It was the only alternative to partially hydrogenated oils, "said Van Duijn. Palm oil and palm kernel oil also had a lower saturated fat content than butter.

The switch in each plant had to occur simultaneously – the production lines could not process a mixture of old and new oils. "Some day, all these tanks had to be emptied of trans-containing components and filled with non-trans components," Van Duijn said. "Logistically, it was a nightmare." (The purchase of additional tanks would have been too expensive.)

As Unilever had sometimes used palm oil, a supply chain was already operational. But it took six weeks for the raw materials to be shipped from Malaysia to Europe, and Van Duijn had three months to make the change. He began to buy more and more palm and palm kernel oils, ensuring that consignments were trucked to the various factories on schedule. Then, one day in 1995, trucks lined up in front of the Unilever factories all over Europe, it's done.

It was a moment that changed the processed food industry forever. Unilever was the pioneer; After Van Duijn organized the switch to palm oil, virtually every other food manufacturer followed. In 2001, the American Heart Association issued a statement stating that "the optimal diet to reduce the risk of chronic disease is to reduce saturated fatty acids and virtually eliminate trans fatty acids from manufactured fats." Today, more than two thirds of palm oil is intended for food. Consumption in the EU more than tripled between the Paddington project and 2015. The same year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave food manufacturers three years to eliminate all trans fats. margarine, cookies, cakes, pies and popcorn. pizza, donuts and frozen biscuits sold in the United States. Virtually all of this has now been replaced by palm oil.

---

For all the palm oil currently used in food in Europe and the United States, Asia uses a lot more: India, China and Indonesia account for almost 40% of the total Palm oil consumed in the world. Where they have already cooked with soybean oil, palm oil has replaced it. Growth has been fastest in India, where accelerating economic growth has been another factor in the new popularity of palm oil.

One of the common points of economic development, all over the world and throughout history, is that a population's fat consumption is growing at the rate of its income, and the sub-continent is no exception. Between 1993 and 2013, India's GDP per capita increased from $ 298 to $ 1,452. During the same period, fat consumption in rural areas increased by 35% and in urban areas by 25%, and palm oil was one of the main ingredients of this escalation. Government-subsidized "fair-trade shops", a food distribution network for the poor, began selling palm oil imported in 1978, mainly for cooking; Two years later, the 290,000 stores were unloading 273,500 tonnes. In 1995, Indian imports of palm oil had climbed to nearly 1 million tons, reaching more than 9 million tons by 2015. During these years, the poverty rate has risen to halved, while the population increased by 36%.

But in India, palm oil is no longer just used for cooking at home: today it is an important part of the country's growing junk food industry. The Indian fast food market has grown by 83% between 2011 and 2016. Between them, Domino's Pizza, Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's and Dunkin's Donuts – all of which use of palm oil – now have 2,784 stores in the country, according to reports. by the nation. Packaged food sales climbed 138% over roughly the same period; for pennies, you can buy dozens of packaged snacks containing palm oil.

The versatility of palm oil is not limited to food. Unlike other oils, it can be "fractionated" easily and inexpensively – divided into oils of different consistency – which gives it multiple uses. "It has a huge advantage because of its versatility," said Carl Bek-Nielsen, managing director of United Plantations Berhad, a palm oil producer based in Malaysia.

Shortly after the processed foods sector discovered the magical properties of palm oil, industries as diverse as personal care products and transportation fuel would also begin to be used to replace oil. other oils. But just as trans fats were chosen for their perceived benefits, but they were far worse than what they had replaced, palm oil was adopted largely for its environmental friendliness.

As palm oil was increasingly used in food worldwide, it also replaced animal products in cleaning products and personal care items such as as soap, shampoo, lotion and makeup. Today, 70% of personal care items contain one or more derivatives of palm oil.

Historically, the soap was often from animal tallow and the shampoo, which came from the Indian subcontinent, was first made with herbal surfactants (a substance that acts as a detergent, emulsifier or foaming agent). Later, synthetic ingredients came into play, with the tallow of animals joining them in the 20th century. In the 1980s, the personal care industry began to notice a consumer preference for "natural" ingredients, which "many thought consumers were synonymous with plants rather than animals," said Chris Sayner, vice -president in charge of sustainable business development. at Croda, a chemical company. Croda's customers began to ask if it was possible to design herbal surfactant formulations without tallow.

Just as Van Duijn had discovered at Unilever, the composition of palm oil and palm kernel oil made it the ideal substitute. Manufacturers looking for alternatives have found that palm and palm kernel oils contain the same set of fat types as tallow. No other solution could offer the same benefits over such a broad range of products. "Alternative sources [to tallow] have been examined, recalls Sayner. "Palm oil and palm kernel fell into the replacement."

Sayner thinks that the outbreak of BSE in the early 1990s, when a cattle brain disease spread to some people consuming beef, caused a greater change in habits of consumption. "Public opinion, brand equity and marketing have all come together to move away from animal-based products in more fashion-oriented sectors, such as personal care." The companies provided by Croda in Europe and the United States began to change.

The transition from animal fat to palm oil has come with some irony. In the past, when tallow was used in products such as soaps, a byproduct of the meat industry – animal fat – was used wisely. Now, in response to consumers' desire for ingredients that are perceived to be more "natural", soap, detergent and cosmetic manufacturers have replaced local waste with waste that must be transported thousands of miles away and that causes destruction. of the environment in the countries where it is used. is produced. (Although, of course, the meat industry suffers from its own environmental damage.) "What's better, from an environmental point of view, than using a by-product on your doorstep? Asked Sayner.

A similar situation occurred with biofuels: the intention to reduce environmental damage had unintended consequences. In 1997, a report by the European Commission called for increasing the percentage of total energy consumption from renewable sources. Three years later, he cited the environmental benefits of biofuels for transport and in 2009 adopted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which set a target of 10% for transport fuels derived from biofuels. here 2020.

Unlike food products, household products and personal care products, where the chemical composition of palm trees makes them the ideal alternative, biofuel, palm, soybean, rapeseed and sunflower oils all have the same performance. But the palm has a big advantage over these rival oils: the price.

EU policies "have created an unprecedented market for the adoption of palm oil," said Kalyana Sundram, CEO of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, a professional group. Attempts by Western legislators to limit the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels – the US adopted its own biofuel mandate in 2007 – have had serious environmental consequences in less developed countries, contributing significantly to global warming planetary.

Palm oil imports into the EU increased by 15% the following year, reaching a record level, and by 19% the following year, the use of biofuels tripling in the EU between 2011 and 2014; The share of biofuels in palm oil increased fivefold during this period. Half of the EU's palm oil now goes to biofuels, double what it was before the RED. Sustainability criteria were then added – although Oxfam and others criticized their effectiveness – and earlier this month, European Commissioners proposed new limits for biofuel crops linked to deforestation. But the damage was already done.

---

TThe oil palm has many attributes that have helped it on the path of domination. It is perennial and evergreen, allowing production all year round. It is exceptionally effective for photosynthesis on a perennial tree and requires less soil preparation than other sources of vegetable oils, which reduces costs. It can succeed in soils that can not support other crops. More importantly, it gives the highest yield per acre of all oilseed crops – almost five times more oil per acre than canola, almost six times more than sunflower and more than eight times more than soy. The boycotts of palm oil can only be replaced by other crops requiring much more farmland and probably more deforestation.

"The cost of production is much lower than that of all the others [comparable] vegetable or animal fats, "said Sundram, of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. "The industry is only minimizing the benefits to the consumer."

For decades, Palm's production edge has not been tapped, until a Scotsman named Leslie Davidson introduced the most important innovation in the history of the industry. Davidson had arrived in British Malaya in 1951, at the age of 20, to work in a Unilever plantation. Four years later, the company transferred it to Cameroon. The oil palm is native to West Africa and was introduced to Malaysia in 1875. In Cameroon, Davidson noticed that insects resembling rice weevils surrounded the fruits of the palm tree. In Malaysia, plantations employed hundreds of people for manual pollination of flowers, but pollination was more effective in Cameroon.

When Unilever sent Davidson back to Malaysia (today Malaysia) in 1960, he told his bosses that he thought the Malaysian industry was doing everything possible to pollinate and that the insects were the ones natural pollinators of the oil palm. "They told him to take care of your business and not get involved," said Carl Bek-Nielsen, who knew Davidson.

In 1974, Davidson became vice-president of the Unilever International Plantations Group. He recruited three entomologists, led by Pakistani scientist Rahman Syed, who went to Cameroon to investigate. Finally, Syed thought Davidson's intuition was correct: a weevil pollinated oil palms, and Davidson received permission from the Malaysian government to import oil palm.

On 21 February 1981, 2,000 Elaeidobius kamerunicus were released on Unilever's Mamor estate in Johor. Results were immediately observed, with no adverse effects, and pollinator weevils were distributed throughout Malaysia. The following year, the country saw its yield increase by 400,000 tons of palm oil and 300,000 tons of palm kernels.

The new pollination technique has been a key factor in the growth of palm oil. When yields increased and the cost of labor required for manual pollination of trees was better used to harvest fruit, the volume of land devoted to oil palm plantations exploded. Davidson had radically changed the future of Malaysia and Indonesia.

But the changes would not have happened without the will of decision makers in both countries. "Both governments have made considerable efforts to support the sector, as it is a simple way to develop the economy," said Raquel Moreno-Peñaranda, Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies. the United Nations University in Tokyo, which studies agricultural systems. and advises governments. Malayan primary industries minister, Teresa Kok, said at the European Palm Oil Conference in Madrid in October: "Palm oil is synonymous with the eradication of poverty . " Malaysia has launched its program to increase palm exports as a means of reducing Britain's poverty independence. Rubber had been a key crop, but as prices dropped, the government launched a program to replace rubber plantations with oil palm. In 1968, Malaysia granted palm oil producers a series of tax breaks. The industry has subsequently invested heavily in flour milling technology to extract the fruit's oil. In the early 1970s, fractionation was developed, expanding the applications of palm oil for food and other purposes.

More recently, plantation owners have found profitable uses for waste such as clusters of empty fruit, palm leaves, palm fruit peels and palm kernel husks. Effluents from factories that were once dumped into nearby watercourses now produce electricity. These new sources of income reduce the risk of planters by offering them income even when palm oil prices are falling (as is the case now), and have helped them cope with obstacles such as rising costs of labor and fertilizers.

But the pressure to increase palm oil production does not just come from Malaysia and Indonesia. The policies adopted by the World Bank in the 1970s encouraged the Indonesian government to expand the list of small farmers. The Asian economic crisis of 1998 shattered the region's exports of manufactured goods, but exports of commodities, sold in dollars, "came as a lifejacket in rough and rough seas," Nielsen. The IMF bailout package for Indonesia demanded that Indonesia generate revenues by exploiting its natural resources and eliminating government-imposed export taxes to keep prices low at home. The measures have further encouraged the expansion of palm plantations. Along with the IMF, private financing helped to boost production: the only Dutch banks granted more than $ 12 billion in loans to Indonesian palm growers in the years 1995-1999.

---

TThe short-term benefits for plantation owners and farm workers, governments of producing countries and financiers have resulted in huge long-term costs to the global climate. Forests destroyed for oil palm plantations are among the world's richest in carbon. When they are burned, this carbon is released.

Palm oil now accounts for 13.7% of Malaysia's gross national income and is Indonesia's main export. In October, at the meeting of the European Palm Oil Association in Madrid, representatives of the governments of both countries extolled the successes achieved in the fight against poverty through palm oil (although Indonesian producers have at least challenged these claims, urging the government and industry to do more for large-scale independent farmers). Officials also emphasized that deforestation was being halted and that sustainability was badured, although another speaker had told participants that deforestation had actually increased in some areas during the course of the war. previous decade. (In September, the Indonesian president signed a three-year moratorium on the development of new palm plantations.)

Les pays producteurs de produits de base n'ont toutefois besoin que de répondre à leurs acheteurs, tandis que ces acheteurs doivent répondre aux consommateurs. En 2004, l’ONG environnementale Friends of the Earth UK a publié un rapport détaillant les taux de déforestation liés à la production d’huile de palme. Alors que le tollé se propageait et que les producteurs craignaient de voir la réputation de la déforestation menacer leur réputation, la Fédération mondiale de la nature a décidé cette année-là de convaincre un petit nombre de producteurs, fabricants et détaillants de palmiers d’établir la Table ronde sur l’huile de palme durable. Une décennie plus tard, la plupart des principaux utilisateurs d'huile de palme s'étaient engagés à produire la RSPO jugée «durable» et 19% du produit mondial était certifié en tant que tel par l'organisation. Mais la Environmental Investigation Agency, une branche de Greenpeace, a déclaré il y a trois ans que la RSPO était «terriblement inférieure aux normes» et «dans certains cas… collusoire… pour dissimuler des violations». (La RSPO a répondu dans une déclaration qu’elle «prend très au sérieux les affirmations contenues dans le rapport d’EIE et la considère comme une occasion d’intensifier ce dialogue et [improving] son système de certification. ")

Il est extrêmement difficile de s'badurer que l'huile de palme est produite de manière durable. Un seul moulin à huile de palme – il y en a des centaines en Malaisie seulement – peut acheter des fruits auprès d'une multitude de fournisseurs et, avec toutes ses formulations et tous ses dérivés, l'huile de palme constitue l'une des chaînes d'approvisionnement les plus complexes de tous les ingrédients. Même lorsque le système de certification de la durabilité fonctionne comme prévu, les environnementalistes ont critiqué de tels programmes. Par exemple, un produit peut obtenir un label «certifié durable» même si 99% de l'huile de palme qu'il contient provient de terres fraîchement déboisées. La RSPO affirme que des critères de certification moins stricts encouragent la participation, l'espoir étant que les fabricants de produits de vente au détail atteindront des niveaux plus élevés une fois qu'ils verront qu'ils peuvent vendre de l'huile de palme certifiée à un prix plus élevé.

Avant la réunion de l’Association européenne des huiles de palme, Inke van der Sluijs, responsable des opérations européennes de RSPO, a admis que «très peu de sociétés [the highest level of sustainability certification] en raison de la complexité et de la longueur de la chaîne d'approvisionnement ». Les environnementalistes considèrent généralement que la RSPO est le plus robuste des nombreux systèmes de certification et incitent les fabricants à utiliser une huile certifiée RSPO. Néanmoins, la moitié de l’huile de palme certifiée durable n’est pas vendue comme durable: jusqu’à ce qu’un nombre suffisant de consommateurs soient disposés à payer le prix plus élevé de l’huile de palme certifiée, peu de choses changeront.

De plus, la grande majorité de l’huile de palme n’est retrouvée que jusqu’à l’usine où elle est transformée et non jusqu’au champ où elle est produite. Le WWF – la même organisation qui a stimulé la certification de l'huile de palme – a déclaré dans un rapport de 2016 que «la traçabilité des usines [on its own] gaspille temps et argent sans offrir de solution aux problèmes de l'entrée de produits illégaux dans les chaînes d'approvisionnement ». On déploie de plus en plus d'efforts pour déployer la technologie permettant de relier chaque fruit à un champ et à un agriculteur, ce qui garantirait enfin que la nouvelle déforestation ne se produise pas pour produire de l'huile de palme.

L’autre espoir de mettre un terme à la déforestation pour les palmiers est l’augmentation des rendements, l’idée étant que si plus de pétrole pouvait provenir des plantations existantes, il ne serait pas nécessaire d’élargir la zone de plantation à la biodiversité. Rajinder Singh, chef du groupe de génomique du Malaysian Palm Oil Board, un organisme gouvernemental, a identifié des signatures génétiques badociées à certains caractères afin de pouvoir sélectionner des palmiers à haut rendement et de ne pas gaspiller la terre d'arbres produisant peu. . Les meilleures plantations produisent actuellement environ six ou sept tonnes d’huile par hectare, mais selon M. Singh, «nous avons vu des palmiers individuels qui peuvent donner presque le double» de la quantité d’huile par rapport aux souches ordinaires. Lorsque les arbres atteindront la fin de leur vie productive de 25 à 30 ans, ils pourraient être remplacés par des souches plus prolifiques.

Toutefois, même le doublement des rendements ne permettra pas de répondre au quasi-quadruplement de la demande prévue d’ici 2050. Il n’existe pas de solution simple. Remplacer la palme par d’autres huiles ne fera qu’accélérer la déforestation, puisqu’aucun de ses concurrents ne se vanterait de son rendement par unité de terre: la palme représente 6,6% des terres cultivées pour les huiles et les graisses, tout en fournissant 38,7% de la production Palm Oil Alliance, un groupe industriel. La Colombie poursuit activement le développement de l’huile de palme dans des zones autrefois consacrées à des cultures illicites telles que la coca, mais elle a beaucoup de retard à rattraper la production asiatique.

L'huile de palme est devenue omniprésente car c'est l'ingrédient idéal de nombreuses industries en croissance, le produit idéal à l'exportation pour les économies en développement et le produit de base idéal pour l'économie mondialisée qui les relie. Les consommateurs fortunés tirent parti de la main-d'œuvre bon marché et de la précieuse forêt vierge que les pays en développement ont en abondance et sont prêts à se séparer à rabais pour accélérer leur croissance économique.

Mais ce modèle n’est pas durable. Si les choses continuent, les forêts et leurs créatures auront disparu et le coût du travail augmentera à mesure que certains travailleurs gravissent les échelons économiques et réalisent qu'ils pourraient faire mieux que de cueillir des fruits. Les producteurs d'huile de palme et les consommateurs n'auront plus rien.

Les produits durables sont ceux fabriqués et consommés localement; lorsque les acheteurs sont en mesure d'badister au processus de production, ils exigent qu'il se déroule conformément à leurs valeurs. Quand il est hors de vue, il est difficile d’en avoir badez pour s’occuper de lui. Changer cela peut demander plus qu'un peu de magie.

• Suivez la longue lecture sur Twitter à @gdnlongread, ou inscrivez-vous au long courrier électronique hebdomadaire ici.