What would you do if you knew that rainforest destruction could be found in nearly every room of your home?
Rainforest destroying palm oil is an ingredient in roughly 50% of all packaged goods sold on grocery store shelves. It is used to make a wide variety of food products from cookies to breakfast cereals as well as cosmetics, soaps and detergents, and is largely responsible for the decimation of Indonesia’s precious endangered forests. In fact, the expansion of palm oil plantations is one of the biggest causes of rainforest destruction and carbon pollution in the world today.
We need these forests far more than we need palm oil. That’s a fact.
The infographic below shows exactly how pristine rainforests get turned into palm oil plantations, how they make their way onto our grocery store shelves and into our homes, and what we can do about it.
Click to view full-size infographic
Until recently very few people had even heard of palm oil — much less understood its connection to deforestation, species extinction and climate change. As public awareness about the problem with palm oil gains momentum, agribusiness giants like Cargill are starting to feel the pressure to transform how business is done in the palm oil industry. But the truth is, most people still have no idea that a huge percentage of the products they bring into their homes contain palm oil connected to the destruction of rainforests.
Knowledge is power. Please share this infographic with your friends and family so we can build the necessary consumer demand for change. Email it, blog it, tweet it, Facebook it. Thank you.
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This graphic is a great idea. The only thing I would add is a link to send Cargill a message at the bottom of the graphic. Also, maybe a list of alternatives choices over major palm oil products (just thinking outloud now). I am a cameraman working mostly on documentaries and I am interested in creating the kind of simple, striking and direct messages that your graphic conveys about the absurd disconnection to nature that is fostering the reckless exploitation. I would gladly offer my services to RAN for any video projects that you might need.
Thanks for your work.
Thanks Pablo! Your support is very appreciated. If you’d like to sign up for action alerts on our palm oil work, you can do so by signing a petition to Cargill here: http://act.ran.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4632&track=homepage
Cookies people! Notice in Europe now big change in that cookies no longer made with palm oil. Check the ingredients – don’t buy cookies that contain palm oil – send a message – one package at a time. Also – palm oil is super bad for you – so this helps eating healthier too.
RAN, this is great!! Pablo (see above) I love your ideas for getting the message out. I hope RAN has some work for you to do (-: Meanwhile, I will make sure that this image is making it around the globe.
As consumers we should avoid palm oil, period? You say we need to “…transform how business is done in the palm oil industry”. Is large scale, sustainable palm oil production possible? Are there products containing palm oil grown in less destructive ways and, if so, how would we know what those products are?
Thank you.
- Brian
Pablo and Brian raise an important question – either: is there something less destructive that could be used in these products instead of palm oil,
or, can palm oil be raised (elsewhere?) that does not cause such destruction?
Does Palm oil go by another name in packaged goods? thnks so much for spreading this awareness, and what a good idea to tell the whole story about palm oil with this graphic.
Palm oil provides jobs for millions of poor indonesian workers. Although i am strongly against the destruction of rainforests, i think cutting out palm oil is not the way to go. Millions of hectares of land lie unused in indonesia. Instead of telling companies to stop producing palm oil, we should be telling them to use this land that will otherwise be wasted to grow their plantations. This has would also help by continuing to provide work for indonesians.
awesome graphic!
but…what happened to the full size? says it can’t be found :(
Hi @mem. We fixed the broken links. Sorry about that! Here is again: http://understory.ran.org/palmoilgraphic/