To palm or not to palm...that is the question for many soapers. Its a touchy issue, and the soaping community seems much divided. Our goal is not to bash those who choose to use palm oil (after all, its in 50% of all household products, so they are not alone), but to celebrate our decision to find ethical alternatives and raise awareness for rainforest and animal conservation. As someone who lives in Indonesia, whence the majority of palm oil comes, I do not at the moment feel there is any such thing as sustainable palm oil. The main body in charge of supposedly sustainable palm oil, Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), is notoriously corrupt and allows members to join if they pay a fee and then merely and vaguely say they will work at some point to become sustainable without providing any real plan or specifics as to how they will do so. In addition, because palm oil is so ubiquitous, and most of the palm oil used is NOT sustainable, I think its more prudent to promote palm oil-free on principle in order to raise awareness rather than to continue to use it in the hopes that it is truly sustainable. This information alone should convince anyone to shun palm oil: According to the World Wildlife Fund, an area the equivalent size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to make way for palm oil production. This large-scale deforestation is pushing many species to extinction, and findings show that if nothing changes species like the orangutan could become extinct in the wild within the next 5-10 years, and Sumatran tigers less than 3 years. (SayNoToPalmOil) Until those statistics change, I just dont see how one can continue to use palm oil in good conscience. I hope we can also seek to find the most ethical sources for ALL our ingredients. Im a huge believer in looking beyond terms like natural and organic and actually researching what is ETHICAL. Palm oil is natural. It can even be organic. But that doesnt make it ethical. Real musk is natural and almost caused the extinction of the musk deer until a synthetic was developed. Fur is natural! Some synthetics are actually better for your skin and the environment, yet so many people still continue to think that all natural is a panacea. I prefer to look at the reality of each individual ingredient I use rather than rely on such terms to absolve me from the responsibility of thinking. In my opinion, too many atrocities are permitted under the banner of all natural products, and its time we all woke up and smelled the synthetic musk and palm oil-free soap!
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 01:32:50 +0000
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