Deforestation, Palm Oil and Black Friday

Do you remember/know that in 2018 an advert by the UK supermarket chain, Iceland, was banned.  It outlined the plight of orangutans in the face of increased deforestation for palm oil plantations but was considered too political to be aired.  If you don't know the advert and want to read up more of the story or you just want to see it again click HERE. 

Are you outraged at this type of censorship?

Now let me ask you 2 more questions ...

• Are you planning to buy anything in a Black Friday sale event, either in a shop or online?

• Are you busy wondering what Christmas gifts to buy all your family and friends, searching online lists of what to buy a difficult teenager or elderly relative etc or grabbing the latest "must have" ideas after seeing some other slick TV advert?

E471 - the hidden palm oil in peanut butter

As a treat and as a change from all the jam I make, we do like the odd jar of peanut butter yet trying to find some we are happy to buy has been an interesting journey.

First of all so many varieties are sold in plastic jars - no thank you.

Then a read of the ingredients shows many contain palm oil.  No thanks again.

Enter Sun-Pat peanut butter.  Glass jar (albeit with a plastic lid) and no palm oil.  Happy enough with that, or so I thought. On Instagram @BusyGreenMum posted a picture recently saying she hoped she had finally found a peanut butter that was palm oil free and she hoped it wasn't hiding under an E number or something.  The ingredient list she also posted showed it contained E471: 

E471 is a synthetic fat, produced mainly from plant origins but in some cases also from animal fats.  The most commonly used fat/oil to make E471 is palm oil.

Why going vegan won't save the world ...

... but not wasting food, changing what meat we eat and altering our lifestyles will certainly help.

Some proponents of a vegan lifestyle state that if the world's population were to turn vegan we would save the world from climate change and cite the following reasons why they believe this is the case:

1. Livestock farming (especially for beef) produces methane (a greenhouse gas) via the natural digestive process of the animals ie cow farts. Methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO₂.

2. Areas of rainforest are being felled at an alarming rate with the cleared land used for cattle farming.  The forests previously would have absorbed CO₂ and when the soil is cultivated before being turned to pasture, it releases nitrous oxide and methane that are both stored in the soil. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more potent than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas.

3. A hectare of land can feed many more people if it produces plants as opposed to animals.

Sounds convincing but there is another side to these arguments.

Green or GreenWash?

I picked this loaf of organic bread up at our local supermarket recently.  I don't normally buy what my boys call "Plastic bread" but this was in the reduced to sell basket and with an excess of eggs and milk I knew I could make it into a bread and butter pudding. But I also wanted to pose the question to you as to whether this was a good green choice or a fine example of greenwashing?

A-Z of Going Green, one step at a time.

I am going to make any specific New Year Resolutions this year.  Instead I am going to try and follow the A-Z Going Green, one step at a time.  Are you with me?  Will you make 2018 the year of Going Green?

My kitchen table - my life

This was my kitchen table yesterday and I realised that it summed up my life so well and what I hope to achieve on a daily basis.  Let me take you on a journey round my kitchen table/life ...

Starting top left and going clockwise:

Bowl of bread dough rising - this one is pumpkin bread and it turned out really tasty.  The sharp eyed among you may notice the dough is covered with plastic and you would be right.  It is a bag that had tortilla wraps in it and after being used several times to freeze things it split so got downgraded to a bread cover.

My 13 year old Nokia phone - yup, I really do have an original Nokia and it is at least 13 years old.  Dare I ask how many phone upgrades you have had in 13 years?

2 tea towels - these came from my Mum's house after we cleared it out.  We tried to salvage as much as possible of things that could not be given to charity or sold on/recycled.

Green Christmas Present Ideas - The Ultimate List

If the advertisers and big manufacturers were to have their way we would buy so much stuff for Christmas we'd have to starve for the rest of the year.  Well I have a message for big business.  There is another way.  A green way that does not mean Christmas is stuffed full of plastic, packaging, waste and debt.  Christmas can be just as fun, and above all better for the planet if we step off the treadmill of rampant commercialism and make Christmas altogether more sustainable.  In my previous blog post I wrote about general ways to celebrate a green Christmas and now I give you the low down on eco-present giving.

Why I will not buy organic food that contains palm oil

My last blog post questioned whether choosing organic food over non organic was always the best choice for the environment.  Many people are happy to pay extra for organic food thinking they are doing the very best for the environment.  However, in my view, there are many instances when organic food does not offer the best environmental choice, including when it contains palm oil:

Quote from my blog post:

When organic foods are contain palm oil  

We all know the devastating effects palm oil plantations are having on the rain forests of Asia and South America and the animals and plants that used to live there.  Manufacturers may say their palm oil is sustainable (what exactly does that mean anyway?) but the production of all palm oil goes far beyond just destroying habitats.  The working conditions of those harvesting and processing the crops is often extremely poor with no health care in place and workers are paid very low wages.  For the consumer, palm oil is far from a healthy product being high in saturated fats.  So why do organic producers even use it in their products?  Simply because it is the cheapest fat currently available.

I then received this comment from Jana315:

"Organic palm oil, all of the world's producers, grow in sustainably. Organic palm oil is the BEST choice among oils. Please do your research so that you are educated properly on this subject. Organic Palm oil is zero chemical input, pays farmers well and is ALL non-gmo. All palm oil is non-gmo. Responsible palm cultivation is a solution to feed the world."

In hindsight I had greatly simplified the organic palm oil issue, as I had done with each point in the blog, and so I wish to expand it here, both answering Jana315 and further clarifying why I stand by my claim that choosing organic foods containing palm oil may not be the best environmental choice.

When Organic food may not be the best choice

"Buy Organic and save the Planet" could well be the logo of a company selling organic products and in many ways it rings true.  With a world of only organic agriculture we could be rid of so many harmful chemicals that kill more than the pests and weeds they are designed to wipe out and the world's soil would be in a much better state.  But is organic always the right choice?  Are there actually times when you would be better off not choosing the organic option?  Was this "Simply Good and Organic" muesli I bought really a good environmental choice?

Am I really green because ...

I am not a vegan?

But what about all those vegan foods that are imported from the other side of the world.  Maybe I should only ...

Shop Locally?

But what if I can only get non organic produce or factor farmed meat locally.  I need to ...

Only Eat Organic

But you know what?  My organic shop sells a lot of processed foods, non local foods and those made with palm oil.  So let's go ...

Palm Oil Free

Looking good until you realise that the only palm oil free peanut butter you can buy comes in a plastic jar.  So the answer must be to ...

Go Zero-Waste

Sounds great until I tell you that the nearest bulk store for me is miles away without any public transport so think of all that fuel I'd use to get there.  So I need to become ...

Self Sufficient

Now in fairness I do grow a lot of my own produce.  And so it is local .... and organic ... and palm oil free and very low on waste.  BUT, I raise and eat my own animals (and use their manure to fertilise the soil) so I am well and truly not a vegan which takes me neatly back to the start of this post.

Home made foods > 4. Plastic packaging > 0.

July is Plastic Free July which aims to raise awareness of the problems with single-use disposable plastic and challenges people to do something about it. As part of the challenge one of my aims has been to make more foods that I might otherwise buy and which comes in plastic packaging.  So what have I managed ... 

1. Tortillas Wraps

Not only are these plastic wrapped*, they also contain a shed-load of additives AND palm oil.  This recipe for home-made tortillas from My Make Do and Mend Life popped up in my Facebook timeline and I am please do report that they were easy to make and tasted delicious.

* I do reuse the plastic bags they come in - they are great for helping to keep lettuces fresh in the fridge and make good string packages for sandwiches and my own home-made bread.  But overall I would rather not have them and he fact the tortillas contain palm oil ensures they are no longer on my shopping list.

Weekly Green Tips #35 - Avoiding palm oil

Week 35 - How to avoid palm oil in food

Palm oil is something you won't find on the supermarket oils aisle but once you start looking at ingredients lists in foods you'll see it is is so many products.  Palm oil is grown in tropical regions on land that has been cleared of rain forest to then grow the palm plantations.  The forests are home to thousands of animal and plant species, the most notable in Asia being the Orang-outang whose population numbers are now plummeting.  Clearance of the rain forests also contributes to climate change through increased CO₂ levels and many palm oil workers are paid incredibly low wages and work in hazardous conditions without adequate protection.  

This is a subject I will be returning to over the coming months.  If you now feel you want to reduce or stop eating products containing palm oil here are 7 ways to go about that.